There is no safety in the middle ground when it comes to quarrying around Kilcullen
This article featured in the September issue of The Bridge
If you keep your head in the sand long enough around here, the next time you come up for air, you’ll find yourself beside a new Kilsaran quarry, writes Kilcullen native and Ballyshannon blow-in, Joanna Costello
In October the High Court will hear the case brought by Ballyshannon Action Group seeking a judicial review of the An Bord Pleanala decision to allow a large-scale quarry to proceed at a site known as Racefield in Ballyshannon, Co. Kildare, just 8km from Kilcullen.
If we are unsuccessful and Kilsaran are allowed to proceed with their plans for Racefield, it will be their fourth quarry within 8km of Kilcullen and bring a minimum daily increase of 72 more Kilsaran-branded trucks onto our local roads, and no doubt a great deal more private hauliers too.
You don’t have to ask around for too long in Kilcullen before finding someone with a strong opinion about the volume of quarrying in this area, whether they live close to the existing Kilsaran facilities here- Halverstown, Ballysax Hills or the now congealed mush of Brownstown/Silliot Hill/Corbally sites on the Naas Road- or they are simply affected by the HGV traffic that these sites produce.
There are those too who would rather ignore the issue, and to borrow a phrase pedalled endlessly by lobby groups and others with vested interests, accuse anyone who objects to a development such as this, of being a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yarder).
Kilcullen is a very good test case for this charge. With the prospect of four quarries within 8km of this small town and the company that owns all of these sites, Kilsaran, known to have an ever-expanding landbank in this area of more than 700 acres, the bigger picture has slowly revealed itself over the years and is now staring us in the face.
The NIMBY argument doesn’t hold water here, not to anyone with even the most basic grasp of the facts.
So, speaking of the facts, here are a few doozies you may find helpful if you are either on or anywhere need the fence:
-Kilsaran has lodged 12 applications for planning permission to Kildare County Council in the last six years to develop or extend quarry sites within an 8km radius of Kilcullen.
-Kilsaran has appealed planning decisions by Kildare County Council to An Bord Pleanala (ABP) seven times since 2017, five of these cases concerned sites in the vicinity of Kilcullen. Of these five cases, four have been decided to date, all in Kilsaran’s favour (the fifth has yet to be decided upon). In documents concerning Kilsaran’s appeal of planning conditions for their Brownstown site in 2019, the company argued for 24 hour operating hours, stating that the conditional operating hours of 06:00am-18:00pm Monday-Friday and 07:00-14:00 on Saturdays were overly restrictive.
- As well as appealing any unfavourable decisions by Kildare County Council throughout the years, Kilsaran has lodged appeals to reduce the levies or financial development contributions they were required to pay as a condition of their successful planning permissions. For example, in 2019 ABP approved the reduction of levies requested of Kilsaran on a development at the Ballysax Hills site from €488,680 to €48,868. Similarly, the levies requested on the company’s Brownstown/Corbally extension were reduced by ABP from approximately €600,000 (€592,130.83) to just €2,500.
- Kilsaran has also recently appealed the local authority’s refusal of planning permission for them to further extend their quarry at Ballysax Hills, at the foot of ancient, heritage site Dun Ailinne, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. Amongst its reasons for refusal, Kildare County Council said that further development at the site would have a “significant negative impact on the importance and setting of the hillfort and would be contrary to the protection of archaeological heritage.” But it remains to be seen if An Bord Pleanala will agree.
-Kildare County Council refused Kilsaran permission for their proposed quarry development at the Racefield site in 2019. An Bord Pleanala's own Inspector also recommended refusal, noting: "I am satisfied that even with mitigation measures proposed, the proposed project would have unacceptable direct or indirect impacts on the environment as it relates to population and human health, and in particular residential amenity, noise, roads and traffic." Yet, An Bord Pleanala, ignored their own inspector and granted Kilsaran permission to proceed with the development.
-The proposed duration of quarry operations at Racefield is for a minimum of 12 years. However, all of Kilsaran’s three other facilities in the Kilcullen area have had their durations extended, beyond the initial period granted, multiple times. The company’s Brownstown quarry on the Naas Road in Kilcullen is now into its third decade.
-Currently there is no direct monitoring of quarries by Kildare County Council. As a result, there is no way to possibly quantify what is being extracted from the land around Kilcullen or monitor exactly what markets these facilities are serving. So even though our County Development Plan, purports to protect us by suggesting that only ‘adequate supplies’ for this area should be quarried here, in reality there is no way of enforcing this. This is the same County Development Plan remember that contains a number of protections for the quarrying industry and could prevent you from building a home on land which is suitable for quarrying.
-Over the past ten years, Kilsaran has actively sought to increase its presence in the UK market. Today they have a number of offices throughout the UK and partner with major building suppliers, but they do not operate any quarries there. The company boast in their brochure about having ‘100+ years of aggregate in reserve’ in Ireland.
Given how easy it has been for them to take hold around Kilcullen, it is little wonder that Kilsaran are confident enough to tell prospective customers that they have more than 100 years of aggregates in reserve.
If you live around this area, you may well be wondering at what point these reserves may be extracted from the ground near you…the odds are that it won’t be too long. If Racefield goes ahead, it will be my second time in 36 years to live within 1km of a brand new Kilsaran quarry in the Kilcullen area and I am by no means alone.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our campaign so far either directly or by supporting one of our fundraising events.
If you would like to donate or share details on how to donate with friends and family, you can donate online via our GoFundMe page at: https://ie.gofundme.com/f/ballyshannon-says-no
We also have a Credit Union account in Kilcullen that you can deposit directly into, account IBAN: IE67KIRI99217910372756
For more on our campaign follow Ballyshannon Action Group on Facebook, Twitter @Ballyshannonac1 and Instagram or email ballyshannonaction@gmail.com and we can add you to our mailing list.
