The High Court has granted Brendan Dowling limited leave to seek judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s amendment of a condition attached to planning permission for a quarry development in Athenry, Co Galway. The court found his application was in time, but did not decide whether the amendment was lawful.
The case concerns the board’s November 2023 decision to replace condition 6 of its August 2023 permission for Coshla Quarries Limited’s development at Barrettspark. The original condition restricted extraction below the water table and cited groundwater protection. The replacement tied the extraction area and depths to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment Report, with clarity given as the reason. The board said it was correcting a clerical error because the original conditions had been drafted by reference to a sand and gravel quarry, while the application was for a rock quarry.
Dowling challenged the board’s power to make that change as a clerical correction. He also raised concerns about flooding and the quarry’s potential effects on his family’s well. The court said those concerns related to the original permission and did not establish a substantial ground to challenge the amendment.
The board argued that the judicial review application was late. The eight-week period ran from 15 November 2023 and ended on 18 January 2024. Dowling attended the High Court Central Office on 5 January to file papers. The judgment records that staff directed him, an unrepresented litigant, to issue a motion on notice and gave him an incorrect return date. He issued the motion that day.
The court held that the application was made when the motion was issued, so it was within time. It said the applicant should not be disadvantaged after relying on the Central Office’s instruction, which was not corrected before he relied on it.
On the merits, the court found substantial grounds to argue that replacing condition 6 went beyond correcting a mechanical writing or copying error, and may have materially altered the development’s terms. Leave was limited to challenging the amendment to condition 6 on those grounds. The court refused leave on the other proposed grounds, including the challenge to the deletion of “sand and gravel” from condition 3(a).
The applicant was directed to file an amended statement of grounds within two weeks and then issue an originating notice of motion within a further two weeks, returnable on 10 June 2024. The question of his expenses was reserved. These directions allow the judicial review to proceed within the specified limits; they do not determine the ultimate challenge.