An Bord Pleanála has upheld an appeal by local residents against a recycling development facility near Cloonfad, in county Roscommon.
Organic Kompost Ltd had received planning permission for the controversial development from Roscommon County Council in July of last year to locate a recycling facility for organic substances at Clonnarkin, Cloonfad.
The 12-acre site is located on the border of three counties, Roscommon, Mayo and Galway, and local communities in the surrounding areas got together to voice their serious objections to the proposed development.
Mr Sean Corcoran, the chairman of the Mid Connaught Environmental Concern Group, a group set up to oppose the facility, said the local community was delighted with the ruling.
"An Bord Pleanála upheld the community's objections to the development, saying that the locating of such a facility in a rural location at this particular site would be visually obtrusive and would seriously injure the amenities of the area. The road network in the vicinity was deemed inadequate for such a facility and An Bord Pleanála ruled that it would be contrary to proper planning to allow the development to go ahead.
"It was proposed that bellygrass and other animal waste from all over Connaught would be recycled at the Cloonarkin development. We could not accept this proposal in the middle of a scenic rural area. It may have created a half a dozen new jobs, but at what price?" Mr Corcoran said.
Local Fine Gael member of Roscommon County Council, Mr Michael McGreal, who had objected to the development at Cloonarkin from the beginning, said yesterday that the decision came as a great relief to the local community.
"An Bord Pleanála had deferred making a decision on the development on four separate occasions already this year. The people had sought an oral hearing on the matter but that was refused and it is with great relief that we receive today's decision," the councillor said.