Council carrying out probe into major south Donegal quarry

An investigation is ongoing at a longstanding limestone quarry in Ballintra accused of operating unauthorised and without any planning permission.

Donegal County Council has confirmed to Donegal Live that a probe is underway into the activities at P McCaffrey & Sons Limited Quarry.

This follows a Section 5 referral by the local authority to An Bord Pleanála, which recently ruled that ongoing quarrying activities at the facility constitutes “development” under the Planning and Development Act, 2000. 

The quarry has been in operation since the 1940s.

The council’s referral was to determine whether ongoing quarrying and ancillary activities is or is not development and is or is not exempted development.

“An Enforcement Notice was served on the quarry operator in 2012, and the ongoing investigation will inform any future decision in relation to potential enforcement action,” Donegal County Council told Donegal Live.

No legal action has yet been launched by the council, but a spokesperson said this was pending the outcome of High Court judicial reviews and the matter recently ruled on by An Bord Pleanála, all of which have just concluded recently. 

In response to questions submitted by Donegal Live, the council spokesperson would only confirm: “The quarry is currently being examined as part of an ongoing enforcement investigation.”

Earlier this year at the High Court, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty rejected an application from the quarry operator to quash two decisions of the Planning Appeals Board, one relating to an application for substitute consent and the other referring to a decision to refuse planning permission for development.

Ms Justice Gearty said the application was made without reference to findings of facts of the Court, which meant that an argument about the quarry being a pre-1964 development “are simply not relevant”. 

Ms Justice Gearty said some arguments made by the applicant relied “on a misleading summary of the state of the law” and relied “on assertions of confusion and an inability to apply the law on its own part and on the part of other quarries”.

The refusal of permission for further development was “reasonable and proportionate”, Ms Justice Gearty said.

Donegal County Council submitted to An Bord Pleanála that quarrying is ongoing at the site in the absence of any planning permission and contested that the entire quarry operation is unauthorised.

The site in question, located 2.7km south of Ballintra, comprises some 33.9 hectares and has an extraction area of 10.6 hectares. The quarry accommodates active excavation of limestone through drilling and blasting with the material processed on site to reduce the rock to aggregate which is then sold.

Processed aggregate is also used to produce readymix concrete on site while the operator manufactures a range of asphalt products within the main quarry. 

The quarry operator had relied on pre-1963 consent to enable the operations, but An Bord Pleanála found that substantial quarrying activity occurred without the necessary permissions.

Two previous declarations were made in relation to quarrying activity and on both occasions the decision was subject to a Judicial Review.

In 2014, the operator applied for substitute consent in respect of the northern quarry area only, but this was dismissed in 2017 due to the application not relating to the entire quarry

Back in 2003, permission was refused for retention, extension and completion of works to the quarry for two reasons. Then, the Board said that there was insufficient information in relation to the nature and extent of the development. The Board also ruled that the public notices and drawings failed to adequately describe the nature and extent of the development 

The Board determined that development took place at the quarry after 1st February 1990, which would have required an environmental impact assessment and that development took place after the 1st March 1997, which would have required an appropriate assessment.  These assessments were not carried out, the Board said. 

An inspector’s report said that the quarrying activities included limestone excavation, material processing and concrete production - all of which needed environmental assessments that were not conducted.

Therefore, the Board said the operations did not meet the exemption criteria defined in the Act.