A Co Galway community has expressed "alarm and concern" over plans to develop a waste-sorting plant just over 100 metres from the local primary school.
Ninety-six children attend the school at Kilchreest near Loughrea, Co Galway, and already 84 objections have been lodged by parents and residents to the proposal.
Galway County Council is currently considering the application by Walsh Waste Ltd for the plant, which would be housed in a building constructed by US film company Metro Goldwyn Meyer (MGM) 40 years ago.
The structure was built for temporary use while MGM was filming Alfred the Great .
The buildings were subsequently given retention approval and were used for boat-building and for storing wool, hides and skins. Walsh Waste says it bought the site from Galway Hide and Skin Company in August, 2007.
The company says it plans to invest €5 million in a "recycling facility" which will sort some 25,000 tonnes of dry recyclable, construction and demolition waste collected in the greater Galway and Clare areas.
The Kilchreest Concerned Residents and Parents Group says it is "alarmed and deeply concerned" at the plans which it says, pose a health treat to children and residents due to "noise, dust and pungent odours".
It says that the proposed site is 105 metres from the school and is served by an inadequate road network and a hazardous junction.
The site is several kilometres from the birthplace of dramatist and folklorist Lady Gregory, at Deerpark Castle, and is close to prehistoric earthworks.
It lies on a vulnerable karst aquifer which flows three miles into a special area of conservation at Peterswell turlough, the group says. It says it will pose a threat to fish on the Owenshee river, running 500 metres from the site.
Gerard Walsh of Walsh Waste Ltd, a family-owned company, said that the environmental impact statement accompanying the planning application showed that the project would be more beneficial to the environment than activities currently taking place in the location.
The hide and skin company is still based there, Mr Walsh said, and would lease the building back if planning permission for the waste resorting was refused.
Most objectors had not attended an information meeting last month, he added.
