The High Court has ordered P Bonar Plant Hire Ltd, trading as Bonar’s Quarry, to stop quarrying and related activities at its site in Calhame, Letterkenny, pending the trial of Donegal County Council’s planning enforcement action.
In a judgment delivered on 16 July 2020, Mr Justice Barr granted the council’s application for an interlocutory injunction under section 160 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The ruling is an interim measure. It does not finally decide whether the quarrying was unauthorised or resolve the company’s claim that some operations were protected by use of the land as a quarry before 1 October 1964.
The company’s director, Patrick Joseph Bonar, said the business had stopped work in an “extended area” after An Bord Pleanála refused further permission in April 2019, but continued quarrying in the original area. He argued that quarrying there had begun in the 1930s and did not require permission. The council disputed that account, saying the site had become one enlarged quarry and that operations continued across it.
The court said the dispute over which parts of the site were being worked could not be decided on affidavit evidence at this interim stage. It noted, however, that the council had produced strong evidence, including aerial photographs, indicating work across the entire site.
The site had planning permission for quarrying from 2008, extended to 9 June 2018. The company stopped work when that permission expired, then resumed after the Board refused its 2018 application to continue quarrying. The Board cited concerns about effects on the Leannan River Special Area of Conservation and an inadequate environmental impact assessment. A council enforcement notice issued in June 2019 required quarrying to cease; the court said it had not been complied with.
Mr Justice Barr found there was a serious question to be tried. He considered the company’s reliance on pre-1964 quarrying substantially weakened by the earlier planning history, the 2008 permission’s conditions requiring restoration, and the company’s application for permission to continue quarrying across the full 7.3-hectare site. He also noted the company had not provided evidence establishing the boundaries of the pre-1964 quarry.
The judge concluded that damages could compensate the company if it ultimately succeeded, while they would not adequately remedy potential harm to the council’s interests and the environment if work continued. He said the balance of justice favoured interim relief. The order restrains the company from continuing quarrying and related works while the substantive case remains to be determined.