The High Court has awarded Brownfield Restoration Ireland Ltd its costs against Wicklow County Council for the period in which the council’s remediation plan was prepared and considered, in the latest decision in a long-running waste enforcement case.
In a judgment delivered on 16 May 2023, Humphreys J said the costs covered 28 September 2022 to 21 March 2023, the date of an earlier judgment that approved the plan in part. The judge treated the approval application as a consequence of an existing remediation order, for which the landowner had previously obtained costs.
The council had argued that each side should bear its own costs, submitting that the company had sought outright rejection of the draft plan without offering a constructive alternative. The judge said the company’s central concern was that the plan did not fully demonstrate compliance with the existing order. He found that concern had substantially influenced the terms of the earlier order, even though he had not rejected the plan and had not accepted all the company’s concerns.
The judgment did not decide the remaining technical issues about the terms of licences at facilities where the council proposed to dispose of waste. The Environmental Protection Agency was given liberty to bring a motion on that issue, returnable on 22 May 2023. The council may bring a motion seeking consequential changes to tendering timelines if it says changes to waste disposal arrangements require them. It may also apply for directions about appointing an independent expert.
The court agreed that the order arising from the earlier, No. 8 judgment would not be formalised until at least 22 May or further direction. The company was also given liberty to bring a separate motion about costs outside the period decided in this judgment.
Unless written submissions were lodged within seven days, the order would provide for the company to receive the costs of the costs issue against the council, including costs associated with the present judgment and specified work from 22 March 2023 to 16 May 2023. The judgment recorded that the proceedings began in 2008 and followed earlier litigation over alleged illegal dumping and remediation of the site; it did not set out the site’s location.