The High Court has struck out a North Westmeath group’s judicial review proceedings against Ireland and the Attorney General over planning permission for a proposed 13-turbine wind farm in County Westmeath. It also refused the group’s application to add reliefs against the State parties after the statutory deadline for bringing the planning challenge had passed.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Twomey on 19 December 2019, concerns two applications within a wider judicial review. The substantive challenge to An Bord Pleanála’s planning decision was not determined in this ruling.
An Bord Pleanála granted permission to Coole Windfarm Limited on 26 March 2019 for a wind farm including 13 turbines, each 175 metres high. The North Westmeath Turbine Action Group and its company limited by guarantee had participated in the planning process as objectors. They were granted leave to seek judicial review on 27 May 2019.
Their original Statement of Grounds sought to quash the planning permission and challenged the assessment of the project under EU environmental and habitats directives. But, the court found, the reliefs sought were directed at An Bord Pleanála; none was claimed against Ireland or the Attorney General. Four of the 44 grounds raised alleged failures to transpose the directives into Irish law, but the court held that naming the State parties and raising grounds concerning them did not itself amount to seeking relief from them.
The State parties applied on 14 August 2019 to strike out the proceedings against them, arguing that the pleadings disclosed no cause of action. The group applied on 9 October to amend its Statement of Grounds to add declarations concerning the transposition of the directives. The court said the group had been alerted to the absence of relief against the State parties in court on 8 July and in subsequent correspondence, but gave no clear explanation for the delay in seeking amendment.
Justice Twomey followed the approach in an earlier High Court case, Alen-Buckley v An Bord Pleanála, Ireland and the Attorney General. He held that adding relief against the State parties after the eight-week statutory time limit would expose them to a claim for the first time and undermine the deadline’s purpose of providing certainty in planning matters.
The court granted the State parties’ application under Order 19, rule 28 and its inherent jurisdiction, and dismissed the proceedings against them as bound to fail. It refused the group’s amendment application. The ruling did not decide whether the planning permission should stand or whether the alleged environmental law breaches occurred.