Quarry fight deja vu

With the background of the current campaign by Ballyshannon Action Group against the proposed imposition of a sand and gravel quarry in their rural community, this story is a sobering reminder of their difficulties, writes Brian Byrne.

It's from a Leinster Leader of April 1997 where reporter Joan Walsh outlines the similar actions by Corbally and Two Mile House residents against the development of a 200-acre site by Kilsaran as a 'massive sand and gravel extraction operation'.

It was, of course, the operation we're now very familiar with at Brownstown/Silliot Hill, and which is responsible for a major part of the horrendous truck traffic through present day Kilcullen.

At this point 25 years ago, Kildare County Council had granted permission, but the community group were awaiting a decision on their appeal to An Bord Pleanala. Their core opposition was that the quarry operation would 'diminish the quality of rural life and interfere with their right to live in a clean and health environment'.

The permission at the time was granted for 10 years. Kilsaran has since been granted a number of extensions and expansions of their facility there.

A quarter of a century later the Ballyshannon Action Group are awaiting a decision whether or not to grant them a judicial review of the Bord Pleanala decision to overturn Kildare County Council's refusal of planning permission for a similar quarry on a greenfield rural site at Racefield within their community.

(Thanks to PJ Lydon for the clipping from his collection of media reports about Kilcullen through the decades.) 

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