News from down the country

national | environment | news report Monday August 10, 2009 19:11 by Contaminated Crow

Two quarries, a landfill, a homeless hostel, a possible World Heritage site and claims of excess cancers

Local residents have appealed against the granting of planning permission by Meath County Council to Goode Concrete Ltd. for extension of their sand and gravel quarry near Clonalvy village, Co. Meath. (Meath Chronicle 8/8/09, p. 4)

Local residents in the Mornington Heights estate of Trim, Co. Meath, who are concerned over what they claim are high rates of cancer locally, are unhappy with a response from the HSE which says the cancer incidence in Trim itself is lower than expected. The group has compiled statistics showing 37 residents of the estate suffered from cancer in the last 12 years, of whom 16 died. (Meath Chronicle 8/8/09, p.3).

Novas Initiatives obtained an injunction last week in the High Court directing named individuals and others to stop interfering with Novas’s development of a house in Mitchel Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, as a hostel for the homeless. (Tipperary Star 6/8/09, pp.1,21).

Around 200 farmers walked out of a meeting in Athlone last Wednesday called by the Department of the Environment for public consultation over the nomination of Clonmacnoise as a World Heritage site in protest at lack of information, clarity and meaningful consultation. (Westmeath Independent 8/8/09, p. 8).

The High Court has asked Wicklow County Council to examine its computers for files related to the illegal landfill at Whitestown, Baltinglass, after a consultant to the County Council, Sean O Laoire, told the court his documents had not been included in files provided by the County Council under discovery. (Wicklow People 5/8/09, p. 23).

A resident of the Multyfarnham area of Co. Westmeath who was among the mass of local objectors to the proposed continuation of quarrying at Killintown Quarry is to take a case to the Supreme Court against the granting of planning permission on the basis that no quarrying took place at the site prior to 1964 despite claims by the quarry’s operator that quarrying began in 1963. (Westmeath Examiner 8/8/09, p. 10).