AN BORD Pleanála has adjourned a hearing into plans to build an eight megawatt biomass incinerator and ash landfill in Co Meath after it emerged that more than five acres of land earmarked as part of the landfill does not belong to the company.
College Proteins has applied under the Strategic Infrastructure Act (SIA) to the board for permission for the development on its existing site in Nobber.
On Thursday, the ninth day of the hearing, landowner David Horgan told Oisín Collins for North East Against Incineration that the field was his and he had not been asked to sell or for permission to include it in the plans, or to allow a waste licence on it.
Mr Collins asked Pauline Fitzpatrick, the inspector chairing the hearing, to rule the application invalid.
When the hearing resumed yesterday, Suzanne Murray for College Proteins confirmed the field was owned by Mr Horgan. She said it was with adjoining fields to be used for soil depositions during the construction of the landfill.
She argued that the SIA did not give the inspector or the board the power to invalidate the application. If it did decide to invalidate it, the company would be seeking its planning application fee returned.
Ms Fitzpatrick yesterday requested the company to "take time to consider their position" and said there was a legal requirement for an applicant to have a significant interest in a site.
She was not in a position to make a ruling and she would report to the board. She adjourned the hearing for three weeks.