Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has claimed that Wicklow County Council is continuing to ‘dump’ on West Wicklow in relation to the kind of planning decisions it is making for that part of the county.

Cllr de Burca made her comments after a recent planning decision by the council granting permission to Kilsaran Concrete Ltd for a large sand and gravel quarry, and concrete block factory, in a rural area next to Rathsallagh Country House Hotel.

“The land area involved is approximately 50 acres” says de Burca. “Kilsaran have been given permission to extract 115,000 tonnes of aggregate each year over the next 16 year period. The negative impacts of this development on the nearby Rathsallagh Country House Hotel and Golf Club, including noise, dust, traffic and visual impact, do not appear to have been given any real consideration by Wicklow County Council”.

De Burca says that Rathsallagh Country House Hotel is one of the most important and successful hotels in West Wicklow which employs approximately 100 people. She says that the proposed sand and gravel quarry will undoubtedly undermine this successful tourism enterprise, and could put it out of business in the future.

“The granting of planning permission by the council for this large sand and gravel quarry without any regard to the successful tourism enterprise nearby is part of a wider planning pattern in West Wicklow” says de Burca. “It seems that because there is a dispersed population in West Wicklow, the council feels it can concentrate publicly unpopular developments such as quarries and dumps in the area. Local people are fed up with the kind of planning decisions that are being made for West Wicklow and they will not sit back and take it any more”.

Cllr de Burca says that she has made a submission to an Bord Pleanala objecting to the proposed quarry. She says that she is disappointed that none of the local councillors have lodged objections to the proposed development.