Incinerator decision delayed for an eighth time

The deadline for deciding on whether to give the go-ahead to a controversial incinerator in Cork Harbour has been pushed out for the eighth time. It is one of the State’s longest-running planning sagas.

An Bord Pleanála had said they would announce on December 5 their ruling on a proposal by Indaver Ireland Ltd to to build a €160m, 240,000-tonnes-per-annum waste-to-energy facility at Ringaskiddy, in Co Cork.

However, that date has now been pushed out to December 19, a year-and-a-half after the original deadline.

The planning authority’s own guidelines state there is “a duty on the board to make its decision as expeditiously as is consistent with proper planning and sustainable development, and to avoid delays”.

There is also a statutory objective to make decisions within 18 weeks, “beginning on the last day for making submissions or observations by the public, following the applicant’s newspaper notice of intention to apply for permission”. This means a decision in relation to the Indaver case should have been reached mid-July, 2016.

An Bord Pleanála has previously told the Irish Examiner that the Indaver case is unusual in its “sheer super-complexity”, as well as in the number of new issues raised since an oral hearing took place in April/May of 2016.

CHASE, the environmental lobby group opposed to the incinerator, said a number of “significant changes” had taken place in relation to the proposed incinerator site, between the time of the statutory, mid-July 2016 deadline, up to the present day.

Spokesperson Linda Fitzpatrick said the site had been rezoned for education purposes by Cork County Councillors in the Local Area Plan (July, 2017).

Moreover, there were “strong commitments by Europe to circular economies and renewable energy”, while “strict limitations on energy produced from unsorted waste place incineration firmly towards the bottom of the waste management hierarchy”.

She said there had also been “an increase in extreme weather events”, which was causing “visible and ongoing erosion of the site” and that the tourism value of the area around the site “has been affirmed, with Spike Island named Europe’s leading tourism attraction in September, 2017”.

Ms Fitzpatrick also questioned the fairness of potentially deciding on such a big project just days before Christmas. If the decision was in favour of incineration, CHASE members would have to spend the holiday period gearing up for a legal challenge.

She said she “couldn’t understand” why the planning authority posted decision-due dates on its website which it repeatedly failed to meet.

“Are they pulling dates out of a hat?” she asked.

A decision from the planning board, in relation to the €180m, M28 motorway, linking Cork city to Ringaskiddy, is also due Christmas week. The project would mean an upgrade of the existing primary route, the N28, along which Indaver trucks would travel to reach the incinerator.

It’s the third time since 2001 that Indaver has applied to build an incinerator in Ringaskiddy.