Campaign opposing Wicklow 'superdump' to be revived

A six-year campaign against a "superdump" at Ballynagran, Co Wicklow, is to be reactivated, following a new planning application for a 180,000- tonne dump on the 300-acre site.

Celtic Waste, with an address at Sandyford, Co Dublin, has announced it is to apply to Wicklow County Council for permission to create the new "landfill facility" which it said would have a lifespan of 15 years.

The company also intends to apply to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a licence and would restrict its intake to commercial waste, from the Dublin and south-east region.

Celtic Waste said it would set up a community liaison committee "to provide a forum" in which local residents, members of Wicklow County Council and interested parties could "discuss and address issues of concern". A spokeswoman for the company said the "footprint of the landfill" on site would be just 52 acres.

The company said Wicklow County Council's existing facilities at Ballymurtagh, near Avoca, and Rampere, near Blessington, were expected to reach capacity in 2001 and 2003 respectively.

"Even if Wicklow achieved recycling targets of 50 per cent this would still leave about 100,000 tonnes of waste that would require safe and legal disposal," the company said. In support of its application the company pointed to recent press reports of illegal dumping in Co Wicklow and said its current facility, near Kilcullen in Co Kildare, would be closing in eight years.

However, locals who picketed each meeting of the ¿council for more than five years in response to the council's own attempts to locate a landfill at Ballynagran said there was nothing to lessen their opposition.

Members of the Ballynagran Coolbeg Action Committee pointed out that the council rejected, on three occasions, plans for what they insist is a "major regional superdump".

During the last campaign it was discovered that Ballynagran is the site of an aquifer (a water source), and the committee claimed leachate from the dump would be a danger to water courses and the environmental purity of the county's beaches. They also have a number of objections based on the scenic nature of the area, traffic and nuisance.

Ms Judy Osborne of the Wicklow Planning Alliance said it was well known now that there was an important aquifer under Ballynagran and the planning alliance would be lending its support to objectors on that basis.

In 1998 council members rejected, by 13 votes to nine, a proposal from staff that the county development plan be amended to rezone the townlands of Ballynagran, Coolbeg and Kilcandra for the creation of the landfill.

Several hundred local residents last night protested against a proposed agricultural waste plant near Emyvale, Co Monaghan. The plant is intended to convert mushroom compost and poultry waste into energy. Residents are objecting because they have not yet been involved in the consultation process. A spokesman said they also had health concerns.

The developer of the site, Renewtech Ltd, organised a public meeting, yesterday and today, to advise locals of its plans.