Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has called for Wicklow County Council to act quickly to save what is remaining of Arklow Rock. The Green Party councillor made her call after attending a public meeting in the Arklow Bay Hotel last Monday night where local people informed her that Roadstone has resumed its quarrying activities at the Rock.

“I heard direct reports from local residents that Roadstone had moved machinery onto the site that day, having ceased its activities during the previous month following a request from Wicklow County Council, and that it was continuing to quarry the Rock” says de Burca. “I know that local area councillors have arranged to meet with Roadstone this week, but I am not confident that this meeting will achieve anything. In the meantime the Arklow Rock is being quarried away and within a month or two there will be little, if anything, left to protect.

The Green Party councillor says that the key issue regarding the Arklow Rock is whether the Roadstone company needs to apply for planning permission to quarry the upper sections of the Rock. “We are continually told that the quarry is pre 1963, and that this exempts it from needing planning permission” says de Burca. “However, if ‘intensification of use’ has happened, and the quarry has extended beyond its original size, then planning permission is required. Wicklow County Council seems unable to establish what the situation is, and meanwhile Roadstone is ignoring public concern and pushing ahead with the quarrying of the Rock”.

De Burca says that she has had previous experience of the Roadstone company through its quarrying operations at Glen Ding in Blessington where the company was responsible for the illegal quarrying and removal of 67,000 tonnes of material from Glen Ding. “On that occasion, Wicklow County Council was also unwilling to take any action and only initiated legal proceedings when the then Green Party councillor, Nuala Ahern, put down such a motion to that effect” says de Burca.

“It seems to me that it will be necessary now for the council to make a Section Five referral to an Bord Pleanala seeking its opinion on whether Roadstone requires planning permission for quarrying the upper section of Arklow Rock or not” she says. “If Roadstone refuses to give an undertaking not to quarry any further until the Board’ decision is made, then the council will have to take out an injunction immediately. This injunction will legally prevent Roadstone from any further quarrying on the upper levels of the Rock until the matter is decided by an Bord Pleanala. If the council fails to do this then Arklow Rock faces certain destruction and all Minister Roche’s talk of giving it Natural Heritage Area (NHA) status will mean nothing”.