Sunday 4 November 2007

Usk landfill fight adjourned

THE AN Bord Pleanla oral hearing dealing with the objection to the proposed landfill at Usk has been adjourned until 8 and 9 November due to the submission of new information. The oral hearing reopened at the Kilashee House hotel last Tuesday morning, 23 October, but due to the submission of a new planning application the hearing was postponed until a later date. Furious residents, who have already shelled out €100,000 in legal costs, were on the scene to protest against the landfill and "Kildare County Council's failure to defend its own members' decision".

On Tuesday last, residents' representative Des Henry voiced his disappointment at the amount of time being given to consider this submission. "A brand new application has been submitted, so we've been given a two-week adjournment," Henry said. "It's not sufficient time to deal with this new information and yet again the residents of Usk have been treated badly by An Bord Plean·la."

The application for the landfill by Greenstar Holdings first came before the council in 2004, when the membership of the council was virtually unanimous its rejection of the necessary material contravention. 24 out of the 25 councillors in attendance voted against it. The developer appealed this position to the planning board and An Bord Plean·la overturned the council's decision, which led to a further decision from the local residents' committee to seek a judicial review.

In March this year, Mr Justice Peter Kelly found that the planning board had been procedurally at fault and ordered an oral hearing to be reopened.

Robert Mulhern
Kildare Nationalist

www.buckplanning.ie

No comments: