Planning for Laois quarry appealed to An Bord Pleanála

The decision to approve a Laois quarry for production by Laois County Council has been appealed to the national planning authority An Bord Pleanála by a local resident.

Booth Precast Products ltd was given approval in December 2024 to extract sand and gravel on a site in Knocknamoe and Ballymullen townlands, Abbeyleix where it already has an industrial concrete manufacturing plant. Its application had been lodged over a year earlier, but a similar application was sought back in 2021.

The company estimated it would be extracting 787,310m3 total or c. 1.57 million tonnes total, at a maximum extraction rate of c. 200,000 tonnes per annum) over the proposed 10 year permit.

It was also approved to make alterations to the existing agricultural entrance to create an entrance to the site with associated gates, piers and boundary fencing; provision of a haul road; site clearance; overburden removal; construction of screening berms; provision of a wheelwash and refuelling hard standing area; provision of hard and soft landscaping; and all associated site works above and below ground.

The land would be restored back to beneficial agricultural after use, according to the application. An Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) and Natura Impact Statement (NIS) was submitted to the Planning Authority with the application.

There had been over a dozen submissions made in concern at the application including group ones from the residents of Grallow Wood, De Vesci Hill, and from Abbeyleix Bog Project, Abbeyleix Tidy Towns, Viscount de Vesci, and from Inland Fisheries Ireland who requested measures to protect a nearby tributary to the protected River Nore.

Thomas McEvoy who had sent one of the submissions, has now made the appeal to the national planning authority to reconsider Laois County Council's decision.

In his submission, Mr McEvoy who lives in Grallow Lodge, lists other industrial activities, buildings, a manmade pond and a road that he says are unauthorised structures on the site. He claims that 300,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year is "illegally imported and stored" by the applicant. In 2005 he took the applicant to the High Court over unauthorised developments and claims they have since breached limits set by that court on heavy truck traffic.

He claims that there is information missing from the Environmental Impact Assessment and Non Technical Summary of the latest application, which would mean it does not comply with the Aarhus Convention or with Laois County Council's Strategic Environment Assessment in its county development plan.

An Bord Pleanála will now review all documents in the original planning application. It will make its decision by May 6 2025.