The High Court has ordered the operator of a waste facility at Barnan, Daingean, County Offaly, to stop accepting waste outside construction and demolition waste. It also ordered prohibitions on timber shredding and on accepting specified bulky items. The judgment left the precise form of the order, costs and any stay pending appeal for a later hearing.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons delivered the judgment on 21 September 2021 in enforcement proceedings brought under section 160 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Nine applicants who live near the facility brought the case against Guessford Limited, trading as Oxigen Environmental.
The dispute concerned a retention planning permission granted in June 2010. The applicants said it covered only construction and demolition waste. The company argued that it permitted a broader range of waste, including commercial waste and timber.
The court found that the permission was confined to recycling construction and demolition waste. Its description of the permitted development could not be expanded by other material in the planning application. The first planning condition incorporated the application documents, which the judge said supported that same limited use. The permission did not cover commercial or industrial waste, household or commercial skips, mixed dry recyclables, or materials transferred from civic amenity sites.
The parties agreed that documents exhibited in the case could be treated as evidence of their contents. The judge relied on the company’s annual environmental reports for 2016 and 2017, which the company accepted accurately recorded waste types and quantities, subject to a correction to one 2016 total. Those reports showed that most of the waste received came from sources other than construction and demolition. The company had described the accepted materials as including mixed dry recyclables, household and commercial skips, and materials from civic amenity sites.
The reports recorded 10,135 tonnes received in 2016 and 11,692 tonnes in 2017, below the 23,000-tonne annual threshold identified in the planning application. The applicants also failed to establish that staffing or vehicle movements exceeded the indicative figures in the environmental report.
The judge found that timber from civic amenity sites was not authorised and that the permission did not allow timber shredding at the facility. He also found that mattresses were outside the permitted use. The proposed order would prohibit accepting waste other than construction and demolition waste, expressly including mixed dry recyclables, waste from household or commercial skips, and waste from civic amenity sites. It would also prohibit timber shredding and acceptance of fridges, waste electrical and electronic equipment, beds, mattresses, sofas and tyres.
The company had argued that the court should refuse relief using its discretion under section 160. The judge rejected that request, taking account of environmental law issues and earlier High Court findings concerning the facility’s waste permit. He had separately concluded that the 2010 permit ceased to have effect when a reviewed permit was issued in December 2016; he did not treat it as continuing through later challenges and appeals.
The court was to discuss the precise order with counsel at a hearing listed for 4 October 2021. Costs and a possible stay pending appeal were also left for that hearing.