The High Court has ruled that each side must bear its own legal costs in Shillelagh Quarries Limited’s unsuccessful planning challenge concerning a quarry registered by South Dublin County Council.
The costs ruling followed an earlier judgment on 27 June 2012 in which the court refused Shillelagh Quarries leave to seek judicial review of an An Bord Pleanála decision refusing planning permission.
The underlying dispute concerned a quarry which South Dublin County Council had registered and was considering for further planning and environmental assessment requirements. The Dublin Mountain Conservation and Environmental Group made submissions about the quarry’s operation and history and later appealed the council’s decision to grant permission.
An Bord Pleanála refused permission. Among its reasons, the board said the development was of a class requiring an environmental impact assessment under EU Directive 85/337/EEC as amended.
After successfully defending the judicial review application, An Bord Pleanála sought its legal costs. The environmental group supported that application.
Mr Justice Hedigan held that the normal rule — under which the losing party generally pays the winner’s costs — did not apply. Section 50B of the Planning and Development Act creates a special costs regime for specified environmental cases so that court challenges are not prohibitively expensive. In such cases, the starting position is that each party pays its own costs.
The judge found that this quarry case fell within that regime because An Bord Pleanála itself had classified the proposed development as requiring an environmental impact assessment.
The court also rejected arguments that exceptions should apply because of the quarry’s long operation despite an earlier High Court decision, or because the case was of exceptional public importance. The judge said there was insufficient evidence about the intervening history and nothing shown to make this quarry case exceptional compared with other cases arising under the legislation.
Accordingly, no party received its costs from another. The earlier refusal of leave to challenge An Bord Pleanála’s decision remained unaffected.