AFTER two years of argument, discussion and protests, Wicklow County Council last night finally adopted the controversial Blessington Draft Development Plan by 15 votes to seven.
The controversy arose over a proposal to rezone 147 acres of land at Glen Ding, Blessington, to enable Roadstone, the construction company which owns it, to extract gravel and sand.
The company bought the land five years ago but has been unable to continue working on its holding because of a High Court injunction pending the outcome of the council's decision on the development plan.
Opponents of the rezoning say that 90 acres of conifer forest would be destroyed and gravel pits there would be unsightly and destroy the amenity value of the area. However, Roadstone has promised that, if it gets the rezoning for the 90 acres it requires, the remaining 57 acres of wood lands will remain untouched.
When the matter remained unresolved at its last meeting in July, the council agreed to defer further consideration on the plan until this month.
In the interim period, the council held a further public meeting in Blessington in which the officials went over the details of the draft development plan one last time in an attempt to clarify the position and win support for their proposals. This meeting was also inconclusive.
Following the decision of the council last night, Mr Seamus Breathnach, production director of Roadstone, welcomed the outcome. The plan, he said, provided for a balanced development of the needs of Blessington.
"The company now plans to submit a planning application for permission to extract materials from related lands," he said. Extraction from these lands is necessary to ensure the availability of washed sand of appropriate grading for the production of quality concrete products for the construction industry."
He added that Roadstone was acutely aware of the need to reinstate and develop extracted lands. To date, approximately 135 acres of land had been reinstated to grassland and forestry with special emphasis on deciduous trees at the company's Blessington property. More than 100,000 trees had been planted by the company at Blessington. Additional lands were currently being reinstated and this policy would continue as more land became available following extraction of sand and gravel.
Mr Liam Kavanagh TD (Labour) said everyone knew that the issue was not going to go away just because councillors voted for this development plan.
It was a pity, he said, that a plan which dealt extensively with a whole series of industrial, educational and planning issues should only be discussed in the context of what was happening in Glen Ding Woods. He warned that the issue would continue to be divisive.
Mr Michael Lawlor (FF) described the plan as balanced. He pointed out that Roadstone would still be subject to the plan fling process in relation to Glen Ding and that objectors could then have recourse to An Bord Pleanala in any appeal. An environmental impact statement would have to be issued.
Mr Tom Cullen (Labour), former chairman of the council, again called for a public inquiry into the manner in which the Department of Energy sold the site to Roadstone in 1991 when Mr Bobby Molloy was Minister.
He claimed this was the sale of the century. It was given away for peanuts and we are being asked to rubber stamp the deal".
Sen Dick Roche (FF) said they could not have a situation where they gave the green light to wide scale and rapid development, with a dramatic increase of population, and then go searching for the support facilities.