Roadstone's plans for proposed dump at Blessington based on flawed data claims environmental expert

Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, who attended the public meeting described Dr Shanahan's findings as "deeply shocking". She claimed that Dr Shanahan told residents that the water monitoring tests carried out by Wicklow County Council were inadequate and impossible to cross-reference with other water tests carried out, that Roadstone had used the same laboratory to supposedly "independently" monitor the results of those water tests, and that the monitoring of landfill gases from Roadstone's land tended to underestimate the level of risk to local residents. The Green councillor also claimed that the most important finding of the expert report was that the illegal waste on Roadstone's should be removed and disposed of elsewhere. "Dr Shanahan expressed her concern that Roadstone's plan's to develop a legal landfill on its lands was motivated more by its own commercial interests than what was in the best interests of the environment or the residents of Blessington" says de Burca.

Councillor de Burca points out that at a recent meeting of the Blessington Forum- an umbrella group representing 48 interest groups from the town - voted unanimously to have the illegal waste removed from Roadstone's land to a more suitable location. "The Forum therefore were very interested to hear Dr Shanahan confirm their view that it was not environmentally acceptable that Roadstone would be allowed to convert the illegal dumps on its land into a legal landfill" says de Burca.

The Green councillor claims that there was a consensus at the meeting that Minister Dick Roche was not using the powers available to him as Minister for the Environment to firstly ensure a proper independent investigation of the illegal dumping on Roadstone's land and secondly to require that Roadstone would have to apply for planning permission for any legal landfill it wished to develop on its land. "Wicklow County Council, which itself is in a deeply compromised position because of allegations that it also dumped illegally on Roadstone's land, has issued a Section 55 Notice allowing Roadstone to develop a legal landfill without having to go through the normal planning process" says de Burca. "This is an abuse of that section of the Waste Management Act 1996 which was never intended to allow landfills to be developed outside of the planning process. The Minister can use Section 60 of the Act to require the County Manager to amend that Section 55 to insist that Roadstone submit a planning application for the proposed landfill. At least this would give the local residents an opportunity to lodge objections to the landfill, an opportunity that is currently being denied to them".

Councillor de Burca argues that a serious scandal is being uncovered in Blessington in relation to the illegal dumps on Roadstone's land. She warns that if the Minister for the Environment continues to bury his head in the sand and to allow Wicklow County Council and a powerful private company to reach "sweetheart deals" that deprive the residents of Blessington of their basic right to a clean environment, that individuals will have no other option but to take legal action involving both the Minister and the council. "Once again where environmental rights are concerned, we see ordinary people being forced to take expensive legal action to vindicate their rights" says de Burca. "The Minister will have the indignity of being dragged before the European Commission once again to explain his failure to act in the face of an environmental crisis that is unfolding in his own constituency. I am calling on him to act now".

For further information please contact:
Deirdre de Burca on 086-806 1450; email: deburca@wicklowgreens.org