High Court quashes planning approval for Tullamore biogas facility
The High Court has quashed planning approval for a renewable biogas facility near Tullamore.
Grafton Group PLC had pursued a judicial review in the High Court against An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant planning permission in February 2022 to Strategic Power Limited for the biogas facility on a site at Ballyduff, 2.2km from the town centre of Tullamore.
The facility was to receive organic matter and convert it into biogas and organic fertiliser.
The biogas plant had been refused planning permission by Offaly County Council in January 2021, but the applicant had appealed the decision to the planning board, which subsequently approved the development.
Grafton Group operates a builders merchants store, trading under the name Tullamore Hardware/Chadwicks, which is approximately 150m from the plant buildings of the proposed development. It had made a submission to the planning board during its deliberations.
In a ruling published last Thursday, Ms Justice Emily Farrell ordered the quashing of the planning board's approval, having found the the proposed development amounted to a material contravention of the zoning objectives of the Offaly County Development Plan.
She said she did not consider the creation of 50-70 jobs during a 12-month construction phase and four to five jobs thereafter was sufficient to meet the objective of designating the lands as a Strategic Employment Zone.
She also found that An Bord Pleanála relied on an irrelevant consideration, namely the absence of significant adverse environmental effects, in deciding whether or not the proposed development was consistent with the zoning.
The judge also granted a declaration sought by Grafton Group PLC that An Bord Pleanála’s failure to publish an environmental report on its website was a breach of its obligations, notwithstanding that the report was publicly available, having been published by Offaly County Council in accordance with its statutory obligations.
She said the planning board's failure to publish the Environmental Impact Assessment Report was “deliberate” and caused by its “earnestly held belief as to its obligations” under article 114 of the 2001 Planning and Development Act.
Following the initial planning approval from An Bord Pleanála, Strategic Power had said its anaerobic digestion plant in Tullamore once constructed, would be fed by approximately 50,000 tonnes of feedstock that would primarily be sourced from local farms within 10 kilometres of the site.