Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has declared herself shocked over a recent decision in which the quarry operator of a site in Ballylusk Ashford won an appeal in relation to the issue of the Gardai accompanying dynamite to the controversial quarry site. The Green Party councillor was reacting to the recent success of the Quarry Operator in appealing against the Attorney General. “Unfortunately the Appeal Judge found that the dynamiting was not associated with planning, and the Operator could proceed with blasting, even thought the legality of the basic quarrying activities is still in question” says de Burca. “The AG is not appealing, and has accepted costs”.

Councillor de Burca says that local people are trying to come to terms with “this shocking decision”. “Once again the Courts and the Law appears inadequate and the decision dangerous” she says. She reports that the occupiers of the Workshop opposite the quarry were informed by a representative of Irish Industrial Explosives in December that their lives were in danger if they did not vacate their premises – which they refused to do. “A detective Garda tried hard to get them to vacate that same day” says de Burca. “They were made to feel like the law-breakers, not the unapproved operation causing so much despoilation and nuisance to locals in the area”.

The Green Party councillor has asked who is protecting public safety in this case? “Where is Wicklow County Council in all of this and why is it not preventing 5 tons of explosives being detonated at an unauthorised development” she asks. She also points out that the quarry has expanded its activities hugely since the Bord Pleanala decision of July 2003, which ruled that it was operating without planning permission. “Why was no injunction sought on this flagrantly illegal operation?” she asks “It is simply an unbelievable state of affairs and locals are full of despair at the moment”.

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Press Release by Deirdre