Cork Harbour incinerator legal battle heats up

Irish judge grants opposition group permission to challenge planning go-ahead

The decision to grant planning permission for a waste incinerator in Cork Harbour has been granted judicial review following opposition from CHASE (Cork Harbour Alliance for Safe Environment).

Irish High Court judge Justice David Barniville said that the official review of An Bord Pleanála’s (The Irish Planning Board) decision will begin in February 2019. The legal review was granted after CHASE presented enough evidence - some 98 grounds - to persuade the Court to review the decision handed down by An Bord Pleanála.

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Justice Barniville instructed An Bord Pleanála and the Indaver developers to file their full written responses to the CHASE case by October 12 and 26 respectively.

CHASE chairperson Mary O’Leary said, “This incinerator should not have been permitted. We believe the Board was wrong to go against its Inspector’s recommendation to refuse. That recommendation was continuing a pattern – every one of the three Senior Planning Inspectors involved since 2003 has declared the site unsuitable.”

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In response to opposition, Indaver said “Indaver can confirm that modern, well run waste-to-energy facilities pose no health risk to the public. Indaver has been successfully operating a waste-to-energy facility in Duleek, Co. Meath since 2011 and has integrated well into the local community.”

In the below video shared on their Facebook page, CHASE makes the case that the Indaver incinerator poses a problem for all of Cork. The opposition group is relying on donations through a GoFundMe page to help lessen the legal costs.