Aer Rianta in breach of planning laws

AER RIANTA, which is discharging hundreds of tonnes of raw sewage daily into the Shannon Estuary, has been held by a High Court judge to be acting in breach of planning regulations.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, after handing down the finding yesterday, said the only reason he was not closing down Aer Rianta’s new air terminal at Shannon was in the interests of the travelling public.

Kerry County councillor Billy Leen had, last March, asked Judge McKechnie to grant him a declaration that Aer Rianta was operating in breach of its planning permission for the new terminal and the councillor had sought an injunction which would literally have brought flights out of Shannon Airport to an immediate standstill.

Judge McKechnie told Michael O’Donnell, counsel for Mr Leen, he was finding as a fact that Aer Rianta was operating in breach of its planning permission in that up to 300 tonnes of untreated effluent was being discharged daily into the estuaries of the rivers Shannon and Fergus.

He said while he would not at this point grant an injunction restraining the discharge of sewage into the rivers, which would have the effect of closing down the airport, he granted Mr Leen liberty to apply for such a restraint at any stage in the future should there be any deterioration in the quality of water in the rivers.

Judge McKechnie awarded full legal costs to Mr Leen to be paid by Aer Rianta.

In March this year, the High Court heard that Aer Rianta had taken up occupation of the new terminal without a sewage treatment plant being in place to treat all of the sewage emanating from the airport.

Mr Leen had told the court that all of the sewage from the terminal and aeroplanes using it was being discharged raw into the estuaries.

He claimed that it had been a requirement of Aer Rianta’s planning permission that it would not occupy the terminal until such times as it had put in place a sewage treatment plant.

Judge McKechnie had been told in March that Aer Rianta had, that month, applied for planning permission for a new sewage plant and awaited the outcome of its application.

Mr Leen said the planning regulations applied equally to everyone, great and small, and that in his opinion the court had found Aer Rianta was operating the airport in breach of its planning permission.