SLIGO COUNTY Council’s decision to approve plans for an extension to the runway of Sligo North West Airport at Strandhill is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála by locals and environmentalists.
Objectors maintain that the proposed infill of 12 acres to facilitate the runway extension across Dorrin’s Strand, a special area of conservation (SAC) under the EU habitats directive, could wipe out a thriving shellfish industry and do serious environmental damage.
They claim the runway extension, estimated at €164.5 million, could cost taxpayers millions of euro in fines by the European Commission if it went ahead. “We are absolutely shocked by this decision. It can’t happen. All the evidence is that it is totally illegal,” a spokesman said.
John McDermott of the Dorrin’s and Cummeen Strand Conservation Group added: “Everybody’s rights are being stamped on. The people’s rights to walk the beach, their rights of way, the beauty of the whole area, the fisheries in the area, are being destroyed.
Sligo North West Airport Company says failure to build the runway extension, which is required to bring it into compliance with safety standards set by the Irish Aviation Authority, would mean an end to the airport as a commercial entity.
Airport board chairman Albert Higgins welcomed the county council’s decision, but said he was not surprised that it would be appealed. He denied the new runway would breach EU directives.
“We’re quite confident we have looked into everything.”
Mr Higgins said the airport company was “prepared to sit down and discuss any problems with all parties”. However, there is no indication that the objectors would be prepared to take up this offer, preferring to take their case to An Bord Pleanála.
The proposed development would involve reconfiguring the existing runway to provide safety areas at each end, as required by the Irish Aviation Authority. It would extend the existing runway, which is 1,170m long, by a further 285m to the east.
The plan also includes the installation of an instrument landing system and new runway lighting, as well as replacing the existing runway approach lighting with a new lighting system that would extend more than 400m from the end of the runway.
The airport is practically surrounded by the candidate SAC under the habitats directive and also by a candidate special protection area (SPA) under the birds directive. It is understood that an earlier plan to extend the runway into the sea was ruled out on cost grounds.
Contentious issues include the ecology and hydrology of the Sligo Bay SPA and SAC, visual aspects of the proposed runway extension and the potential impact of it on a clam nursery which operates in the channel on Dorrin’s Strand that would be crossed by it.
An unusually large number of submissions – some 200, most of them against the plan – was received by the county council, which requested detailed further information from the airport company before making its decision to grant permission.