A High Court challenge to Fingal County Council’s enforcement notice to restrict night flights at Dublin Airport was adjourned mid-hearing on Wednesday to await the outcome of a planning decision that overlaps with key issues in the case.
State-owned airport operator DAA had concluded its opening arguments and Aer Lingus had begun making submissions on the second day of the hearing when Mr Justice Richard Humphreys queried whether continuing the trial was the best approach.
An Bord Pleanála is considering DAA’s request for a relaxation of the restrictions imposed on night-time flights as a condition of 2007 planning approval for the new North Runway. The airport authority wants the planner to approve “noise abatement” measures in place of the condition restricting 11pm-7am flights to a nightly average of 65.
DAA’s proposed “relevant action” would replace the numerical cap with a noise quota between 11.30pm and 6am and would allow for more flight take-offs and landings than is permitted by the planning condition.
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In its High Court case, DAA protests the validity of the council’s enforcement notice issued last July on grounds that the volume of nightly flights exceeds the planning condition. The enforcement decision came following complaints from locals about excessive noise from the runway.
Mr Justice Humphreys on Wednesday expressed a preference for delaying the rest of the hearing pending the board’s determination. After taking instructions from their clients, lawyers for all of the parties agreed the case should be adjourned for mention before the court next June 24th.
Facing potential criminal sanction if it failed to comply within six weeks of issuing, DAA secured a High Court order last August freezing the notice’s effects pending resolution of its proceedings. Fingal County Council has stood over the validity of its notice.
The airport operator’s senior counsels, Brian Kennedy and Fintan Valentine, instructed by Matheson solicitors, submitted to the High Court on Tuesday that the notice contained “manifest failures” and should be quashed.
Among their complaints were that its demands were unclear and a cap of an average of 65 flights per night over a period could be interpreted in five different ways. On one reading, DAA would have had to cancel 300 flights, affecting 45,000 passengers, while another interpretation would halt 4,000 flights carrying 700,000 passengers, the court heard.
The trial had been scheduled to run for five-six days. Fingal County Council’s senior barrister, Stephen Dodd, was due to rebut all of the points made by DAA and argued the notice adequately explained a planning condition imposed years earlier.
Ryanair, the Irish Aviation Authority and a local resident were also planning to make submissions, along with Aer Lingus, as notice parties whose interests are affected by the local authority’s enforcement decision.
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