The High Court has refused Peter Sweetman’s application to quash two An Bord Pleanála decisions concerning Kilsarran Concrete’s quarry at Hilltown Little, Bellewstown, Co. Meath.
The decisions, both dated 24 October 2018, granted substitute consent for quarry development already carried out and planning permission for future use and development. Mr Justice Miriam O’Regan delivered judgment on 14 April 2021. The case was a judicial review of those decisions; the court refused the relief sought.
Sweetman argued that the court should refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union about whether exceptional circumstances justified retrospective consent. The judge held that the proceedings did not properly challenge an earlier 2013 decision directing the quarry operator to apply for substitute consent. Reopening that decision was outside the pleaded case, and the court said dealing with it fairly would require further evidence. It also noted that the issue of retrospective consent and European law had been addressed in an earlier case concerning the same quarry.
The applicant also argued that An Bord Pleanála had not adequately explained why it disagreed with an inspector who recommended refusing substitute consent, citing damage to a monument and effects on the local community. The judge found the board’s reasons could be understood from its decision and the inspector’s report: the board considered those impacts insufficiently severe to justify refusal.
The court rejected a further argument that future mitigation could not address past unauthorised activity. It said that challenge went to the substitute-consent process itself and could not be determined in these proceedings without a State respondent. The judgment noted that the monument had been excavated in 2007 under a licence and that the board considered the licence and excavation record relevant to mitigating the loss.
A challenge to permission for excavation nine metres deeper than applied for had become moot after the board amended the permission following a request from the notice party. The judge also rejected the claim of apparent bias, finding that a reasonable independent observer would not apprehend bias or prejudgment.
An Bord Pleanála’s website was updated on 17 December 2018, rather than shortly after the decisions. The judge accepted that the delay resulted from an IT systems upgrade, found no prejudice to Sweetman, and said he lacked standing to bring the claim on behalf of unidentified members of the public. A declaration was not warranted.
The judgment records that Sweetman had leave to bring the judicial review proceedings on 14 January 2019. It does not determine the merits of any separate enforcement or State action concerning the quarry.