Waste facility in Cork's Little Island refused
An Bórd Pleanála went against its own inspector’s recommendation to grant permission for the waste transfer and recycling facility and voted by a margin of 2:1 to refuse permission to Country Clean Recycling Unlimited for the development at Courtstown Industrial Estate.
Plans for a 95,000-tonne a year waste facility in Little Island in Cork have been shot down.
An Bórd Pleanála went against its own inspector’s recommendation to grant permission for the waste transfer and recycling facility and voted by a margin of 2:1 to refuse permission to Country Clean Recycling Unlimited for the development at Courtstown Industrial Estate.
The identification of Little Island as an area of future residential development and investment, the scale of the waste operation on the site, the failure to adequately consider other potential sites, and the designation of this area of Cork Harbour as a special conservation area were factors in the decision.
It marks the end of a long-running planning saga since the company applied to Cork County Council for planning for the project in December 2018.
It attracted more than 100 submissions opposing the development.
Following a lengthy process, the council approved planning with 33 conditions, triggering an appeal last year by a number of parties, including the waste management company itself, and Mark Scally of Hayfield Manor, who is one of the owners of a former golf course adjoining the proposed site.
Observers included Ballymaloe Foods, the Little Island Business Association, Glounthaune Tidy Towns, Island Cross Residents Association, and the Clash Road Residents.
Country Clean had sought permission to develop a 6,625sq m waste transfer and recycling facility to handle up to 95,000 tonnes of waste annually on a greenfield site where planning had previously been granted some years earlier to another waste company for a 20,000 tonnes-a-year waste facility. That permission expired on January 10, 2018.
The facility was designed to accept non-hazardous material such as brown bin, glass packaging, cardboard, and co-mingled packaging waste, as well as residual municipal waste and skip waste from household and commercial sources. It would not handle hazardous waste.
The waste would then be sorted in the warehouse using manual and mechanical processes before it would be crushed, graded, sorted, and baled for diversion to non-disposal.
Waste was to be accepted or dispatched from the site seven days a week, with processing of the waste occurring 12-hours per day, six days a week.
But among the conditions imposed by the council, and one of two which were appealed by Country Clean, was a restriction on the hours of waste receipt to between 6am and 8pm, and on waste dispatch to between 5am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday.
The grant of planning was appealed on several grounds, including zoning, environmental, and traffic hazard issues, with several observations pointing out the company’s track record in relation to its waste facility in Churchfield, which has been the subject of enforcement action by the EPA.
In her detailed 116-page report, the board inspector concluded by recommending to the board that planning be approved.
But the board said in deciding not to accept the inspector’s recommendation to grant permission, it had concluded that the proposed development would materially contravene an objective of the Cork County Development Plan 2014 which precludes the location of such facilities in infill sites within areas already developed for small- to medium-size industry, warehousing and distribution.
It said the proposed development would conflict with and undermine the objectives of the Cobh Municipal District local area plan which establishes Little Island a principal location for future investment in housing, jobs, infrastructure, social and community facilities, and would seriously injure the residential amenities of existing properties in the area.
The board said the applicant’s environmental impact assessment report failed to adequately consider alternative sites and it said it did not accept the inspector’s conclusions about the suitability of the site for a 75,000 tonnes per annum “upscaling”.
Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central Pádraig O’Sullivan welcomed the decision, and acknowledged “the extraordinary efforts of the residents and businesses” in the area that worked on the issue.
“I have worked closely with the community association over the past number of years and I was a member of the planning subcommittee which was established to challenge this development,” he said.
“As a native of Little Island, I know it is a huge relief to the local community and I want to commend them all once again for their efforts.”
Country Clean said it was disappointed with the decision given the fact permission was granted by the county council and approval was recommended by the board inspector.
“There is a serious lack of 'material recovery facilities' in the Cork region to deal with the ever-growing population which is generating increased waste and recycling volumes in the region,” a spokesman said.
“We’d like to thank all our customers and staff for their support in our efforts. We will await the formal notification and will assess what options to take at that stage.”
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