Following a recent decision by an Bord Pleanála to overturn the planning permission granted by Wicklow’s County Manager to Roadstone for a controversial extension to its quarrying operation at Blessington, Green Party councillor Deirdre de Burca has publicly expressed her alarm.

De Burca argues that the Board’s rejection of this planning decision of the County Manager is part of a growing trend whereby bodies outside of County Wicklow have criticised the manager’s planning and waste decisions concerning the Roadstone company.

“Firstly we had the Section 55 notice issued by the Manager to Roadstone directing it to create a landfill on its lands at Blessington, despite the fact that these lands lie above a regionally important groundwater source” says de Burca. “The manager’s decision was then rejected by the Environmental Protection Agency on a number of different grounds”.

The Green councillor points out that the manager then made a “very strange decision” to grant planning permission to Roadstone for a significant extension of its quarrying activities at Blessington. She says that Dublin City Council and the Department of the Environment both officially expressed concern about the scheme’s impact on the Blessington reservoir, which supplies drinking water to about half the population of Dublin.

“Luckily an Bord Pleanala overturned the manager’s incredible decision and said the quarry would seriously injure the amenities of Blessington on heritage and environmental grounds” says de Burca. “The refusal was also welcomed by the Minister for the Environment who said it was ‘the right decision’. A spokesman for An Taisce said the “comprehensive nature of the refusal . . . was a major indictment of the credibility and competence of Wicklow County Council as a planning authority”.
De Burca says that it is a matter of extreme public concern that Wicklow’s county manager appears to have made a series of “unwise” decisions concerning the Roadstone company which have then either been objected to, or overturned by, statutory bodies such as the EPA, the Department of the Environment, Dublin City Council and an Bord Pleanala. She claims there are now a number of important questions that need to be answered by the manager and has called on Minister Dick Roche to finally appoint an independent inspector with the powers of a Commissioner to investigate waste and planning issues being handled by Wicklow County Council”. She claims that if the Minister fails to act, he will be propping up a “discredited regime” within Wicklow County Council and will not be serving the interests of his constituents.

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Press Release by Deirdre