The State's longest running planning battle could be at an end after the decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission for a sewage treatment plant in Arklow, Co Wicklow. Marie O'Halloran reports.
Twelve years after it was first discussed, Wicklow County Council will immediately begin seeking tenders for the construction of the secondary treatment plant and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, said it was hoped to dovetail the construction of the plant with a flood relief scheme for the town.
Costs for the €30 million-plus plant will have to be reviewed and the county council hopes to start construction next year.
Mr Roche, a Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow, said he was very pleased that permission had been granted and he hoped there would be no further challenges to the plant at Seabank, Arklow. The issue has been through the High and Supreme Courts.
"It is an extraordinary saga by any standards," he said. "The views of people arguing against the plant have been heard and they should let it go ahead. This issue has been chewed over and over." Raw sewage was being discharged into the town's harbour.
Coastwatch Ireland, which opposed the siting of the plant at Seabank has expressed its disappointment. Ms Karin Dubsky said that "the only intact (sand) dune system in Arklow is at Seabank" and now there would be a treatment plant with a discharge pipe going through it to the sea.
Ms Dubsky said there was a far better site now available, at the old IFI plant, which was not available when the controversy arose.
The new plant will consist of a wastewater treatment works for a population equivalent of 18,000 people and associated sewers, roads and outfall pipe on an area of 2.9 hectares at Seabank.
Wicklow county manager, Mr Eddie Sheehy, said the "construction of such a facility at this location is very necessary to provide modern sewerage treatment services for Arklow".
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