Cassidys cite ‘campaign of intimidation’ at enforcement case

A director of a company at the centre of the defective blocks scandal in Donegal has told a court that the business was forced to close due to a boycott campaign in 2021.

Ms Natasha Cassidy took to the witness box at Buncrana District Court this week during a case involving Cassidy Brothers Concrete Products Limited.

Donegal County Council has taken legal proceedings against the company for non-compliance with planning conditions at its headquarters at Gransha, Buncrana.

An enforcement notice was served on the company in May 2022 and in January of this year a summons was issued.

The case was before Judge Éiteáin Cunningham at Tuesday’s sitting of Buncrana District Court, which heard that the company was unable to discharge various financial contributions, totalling over €670,000, to Donegal County Council. These monies were part of strict conditions laid down by the local authority in granting planning permission for continuation of the quarrying works.

Ms Cassidy said that a ‘boycott campaign started and escalated’ against the company.

“It was a campaign to boycott the company; a campaign of intimidation against employees and customers and it came to the point where someone was going to get hurt,” Ms Cassidy told the court.  “We made an executive decision to suspend manufacturing operations and laid off staff.”

Ms Cassidy said staff were put on notice in June 2021. The last blasting of rock took place in April 2021 and no extraction works have taken place since around August 2021.

Ms Cassidy said the family operated the quarry since 1980, but could not continue as a result of the campaign. Having entered into a financial agreement over a contribution of €139,058.28 to Donegal County Council, the company paid nine months of instalments before becoming unable to continue.

“We weren’t receiving any money because customers wouldn’t pay,” Ms Cassidy said. “It was very acute. The business closed within weeks.  We are not in a position now with these financial contributions.”

Natasha Cassidy at Buncrana District Court. (North West Newspix)

Donegal County Council was represented by solicitor Mr Kevin McElhinney, who told Judge Cunningham that the charge against the company was a failure to comply with an enforcement notice.

A small crowd of protestors carrying placards gathered outside Buncrana courthouse.

A Mr Martin McDermott, Planning Enforcement Officer with Donegal County Council, told the court that planning permission was initially granted in June 2020. For a period of a year and a half thereafter, Mr McDermott said ‘significant discussions’ went ‘back and forth’ between the operator’s agent and various sections of the Council.

Mr McDermott told how he inspected the site on September 15, 2020 and the quarry was ‘opened and operational’. He identified 18 conditions of the original 23 conditions that hadn’t been complied with and needed further investigation.

Solicitor Mr Kevin McElhinney. (North West Newspix)

In November 2020, a warning letter was issued by Donegal County Council. Between then and February 2022, what Mr McDermott described as ‘extensive discussions and protracted discussions’ between the Council and Cassidys took place in relation to the issues.

In February 2022, a substantial document, running to 233 pages, was submitted to Donegal County Council.

An appeal lodged to An Bord Pleanála in 2019 in respect of the quarry was subsequently withdrawn and a ‘final grant’ of planning permission was issued in June 2020, Mr McDermott said.

Mr McDermott said there was ‘initial compliance’ for a year. In a follow-up site inspection in April 2022, Mr McDermott said he established that six of the 18 issues of non-compliance were either outstanding or part-outstanding and an enforcement notice was issued in May 2022.

When Mr McDermott returned in August 2922, the entrance gates to the quarry were closed and there was no evidence that the quarry was operational. There were no persons present.

He said he could establish steps taken regarding the non-compliance issues without entering the quarry as they related to works that were to be carried out to the road infrastructure serving the quarry and also to payments of security and financial contributions to Donegal County Council.

Mr McDermott explained the issues to the court and said they still remain outstanding.

The company was told to upgrade the Mill Brae junction, the intersection of Gransha Road and Looking Glass Brae, to provide a widened kerbline as heavy goods traffic was mounting and damaging the kerbs. Two pedestrian crossings were to be installed at Gransha Road as well as various signage.

Various monies, in respect of a security bond and financial contributions relating to road works and development charges, and which totalled €671,199.64, were still outstanding, Mr McDermott said and were due to have been discharged by December 2020.

Barrister for Cassidy Brothers Concrete Products Ltd, Mr Oisin Collins SC, instructed by Éamonn Dillon of Edmond J Dillon Solicitors, Listowel, County Kerry, said it was not possible for his clients to comply with the steps outlined in the enforcement notice ‘as the time for doing so had long passed’.

Mr Collins said Cassidys could not simply go out and carry out upgrade works to a road without advance approval from the planning authority.

“My client cannot, in the real world, carry out upgrades of 450m of road without long discussion and prior agreement: Is my client to go out blind and commit offences under the Roads Act,” he said. “It is simply impossible for my client to comply with that condition. There was no written authorisation or permit or licence for the work and we don’t know what those road works are, would be or could be.”

Solicitor Éamonn Dillon. (North West Newspix)

Mr Collins said there were 37 instances of communication and added: “It’s not like nothing has happened.”

Mr Collins said Cassidys ceased operating in September 2021 and the site ‘was effectively forced to close’. The last blast on the site occurred in April 2021 and there has been a ‘complete hiatus’ since September 2021, he said.

“The quarry was then closed and in 2022 enforcement proceedings began,” he said. “How are they going to do these things? They have stopped trading, The gates are closed. They are not quarrying material. They are not generating revenue. It is an impossibility for my client to comply.”

Mr Collins said his client received ‘repeated apologies’ from the Council over delays in communication.

“Isn’t it clear that repeated efforts were made and my client was being hampered in response because the Council had Covid and other issues?” he said. “How can blame be laid at my client’s door?”

Mr McElhinney said that ‘other options’ were opened to the defendants, but these were not acted upon.

“An enforcement notice was served and never challenged in the proper manner,” Mr McElhinney said. “The requirements of the enforcement notice were not complied with.”

Mr Collins argued that it was ‘quite clear that no enforcement notice should have been served and no prosecution brought’.

“My client has been operating since the 1980s, and it responsibly sought planning permission and did so unusually in time to prevent there being a hiatus under various permissions,” Mr Collins said.

“It did appeal to An Bord Pleanála and thought better to try and resolve at a local level rather than national. Engagement happened across all fronts. There was a degree of delay arising from the Covid-19 hiatus which impeded the process.

“For other reasons entirely, my client was the subject of protest and chose, reluctantly, to close its gates. My client simply is no longer in a position to give effect to the financial contributions sought or in a position to obtain bonds from any bond house or bank.

“The Court knows well that someone cannot be brought on a criminal sanction for something they could not do.”

Mr Collins asked the court to acquit his client as they ‘simply were not in a position to comply’.

“There is a procedure to recoup money, but not to prosecute a criminal sanction,” he said. “My client tried its best, was thwarted by circumstances and should not be subject to criminal offence.”

Judge Cunningham adjourned the matter until January 23, 2024 for finalisation.