Wet woodland at Toomes - lives to fight another day!
According to a piece in The Argus this week Quinn Energy plans to build a gas-fired power plant in the Ballykelly/Toomes area near Louth village are on hold. According to a spokesman for the troubled Quinn Group, "the company is still in the middle of the permitting system and timelines for reconstruction have been put back."
Quinn originally applied to An Bord Pleanala for planning permission under the Strategic Infrastructure Act in September 2007. After several delays and an extended oral hearing the Inspector refused permission on the grounds that the plant was a material contravention of the County Development Plan - the implication being that the Coundy Development Plan never intended such a vast commercially-run industrial facilityto be located in such a agriculturally-based rural area. However the Bord overruled their own inspector and the opinions of the many objectors and approved the plant with a large number of conditions. Approval was given in May 2008, well beyond the normal 28 week delay between application and approval.
Toomes wet meadow slated for destruction by Quinn
Quinn then applied to the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain an Integrated Pollution Prevention Control permit but the EPA inspector requested a considerable amount of further information from the applicant - delays in providing this information is the cause of the current delay.
Having said that one has to wonder if the economic downtown, the credit crunch and Quinn's well known problems in relation to the Anglo Irish Bank scandal are not adding to Quinn's problems.
Common Spotted Orchid (alba form) at Toomes
The 30 acre area in question is acknowledged by Quinn as being of very high ecological quality in the EIS that was submitted as part of the ABP application. It consists of an area of wet woodland and wet meadow, habitats that are rare in County Louth. If the project ever does go ahead the area will be substantially destroyed and County Louth's environment will be much the poorer for it. Given the many alternative brownfield sites that would be just as suitable, but probably more costly than "an auld bog", one has to wonder what the words "sustainable" mean in terms of the missions of both the EPA and An Bord Pleanala!
