Judge grants injunction halting excavation at Donegal quarry

The board was not satisfied the development would not adversely affect the integrity of the Leannan River Special Area of Conservation

An injunction has been granted by the High Court halting excavation and extraction activities at a quarry in Donegal.

Mr Justice Robert Barr granted the order to Donegal County Council against P Bonar Plant Hire Ltd, trading as Bonar Quarry in Calhame, Letterkenny.

The council brought proceedings seeking to restrain alleged unauthorised quarrying.

The judge said director Patrick Joseph Bonar accepted the quarry was refused permission to carry on works by An Bord Pleanála in April 2019.

The board was not satisfied the development would not adversely affect the integrity of the Leannan River Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and because an environmental assessment report was inadequate.

As a result of that refusal, quarrying and related works, in what Mr Bonar called the "extended area", ceased, said the judge.

The extended area had previously been the subject of conditional planning approval, but Mr Bonar claimed he was entitled to continue working the original quarry site because work there did not require approval due to the fact it had been in operation before planning laws were introduced in 1964.

He continued quarrying in that area and, following inspections, the council served enforcement proceedings to cease the work in June 2019.

This was not complied with and district court summonses for non-compliance were issued earlier this year but adjourned due to Covid 19.

 

Subsequent site inspections followed after a complaint and the council found works were continuing.

Mr Bonar was advised by the council that he didn't have planning permission. He replied that he could not stop working as he had workers to keep employed and contracts to fulfil, said the judge.

He was also working to get planning permission for another quarry he owned and said, once he got that, work at Calhame would stop. He produced an exit strategy in which he envisaged works continuing until September.

The council brought High Court proceedings seeking a cease-of-works injunction. The application was opposed.

Today Mr Justice Barr said the injunction should come into operation on tomorrow at 6pm. It applies to extraction works but not certain processing works.

The judge said the issue of whether work is being carried out in only the original area of the quarry or in the extended area was not a matter to be determined at this stage. However, the court was entitled to note from evidence supplied, including aerial photos, that work is continuing on the entire site.

If an injunction was refused the court would be "encouraging a person to flout the planning laws" which are designed to protect the public interest and would be ignoring the environmental issues which clearly arise in this case, he said.

It was "stretching credibility" to assert the company genuinely believed it was entitled to revert to its pre-1964 status, he said. The pre-1964 status was superseded by planning approvals in 2008 and 2013 but which expired in 2018.

The balance of justice lay in granting injunctive relief, he said.