Application entered to Donegal County Council for Churchill Quarry extension

The operators of Churchill Stone quarry have applied to Donegal County Council for planning permission for a significant extension of the facility’s extraction area.

An application was submitted for the Keeloges, Churchill site, for the extension of the extraction/quarry area by 7.27 hectares, including the landscaping of the quarry during the operational phase and the restoration of the quarry upon completion of the extraction.

The application includes a reduction in the level to which the area is extracted to, along with all other site development works. 

Previous planning permission was granted by Donegal County Council to Churchill Stone Ltd in 2019, for the quarrying of 19.9 hectares, which would be subject to the extraction and processing of rock by drilling, blasting, crushing and screening, for a 25-year period. 

The site has also been subject to other applications and appeals to Donegal County Council, and An Coimisiún Pleanála, and has faced objections from groups such as the Churchill and Derrora Residents Group. 

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A cover letter submitted as part of the application stated: The Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Natura Impact Statement deals with the water and environmental impacts which this application, if granted, may have on the area and shows that the current situation, as it pertains on the site, can accommodate the larger extraction area in this instance. 

“The water in the adjacent river is tested regularly by the operator and indeed by the Laboratory section of Donegal County Council, where the results are recorded, and I am pleased to say that the results have been satisfactory by and large.”

The applicants concluded: “This facility has strived to be compliant with all of the conditions and regulations which pertain to this quarry and facility and has recently been investigated by the enforcement section and they have issued the operator with a letter to advise that the enforcement case has been closed as the facility is compliant with the conditions associated with the various permission which have been granted for the site since 2019. 

“The facility employs in the region of 25 personnel and hopes to continue to operate and supply materials to the construction sector into the future. This application will allow for a pathway forward to be secured so that those who are employed at the facility can continue to be employed into the future.”

Donegal County Council has set a decision due date for the application for February 4, 2026