The decision by An Bord Pleanála to refuse planning permission to the Port of Cork for a new €160 million container terminal was greeted with disappointment by the port while local environmental campaigners said the decision had vindicated the planning process.
The Port of Cork had applied to An Bord Pleanala under the Strategic Infrastructure Act for permission to develop the new terminal on a 37 hectare site at Oysterbank in Ringaskiddy in the Lower Harbour to replace the existing container terminal at Tivoli.
An Bord Pleanála held an oral hearing into the application which ran for 15 days before its inspector, Paul Caprani but today the board ruled that the proposal was contrary to proper planning for the area and refused the application.
An Bord Pleanála said that while it accepted the need to move port activities from Tivoli Docks, it believed that the Ringaskiddy site was not adequately served by a road network capable of taking the extra traffic generated.
The proposal would result in much port related traffic traversing the city road network and would exacerbate serious traffic congestion at strategic interchanges at Bloomfield, Dunkettle, Kinsale Road and the Jack Lynch Tunnel, said the board
Moving the container terminal to Ringaskiddy would also mean that it would be unable to make use of rail freight carrying facilities in the future and would therefore represent “a retrograde step” in terms of sustainable transport planning, An Bord Pleanála ruled
Port of Cork Chief Executive, Brendan Keating said that the Port was very disappointed with the decision but that the port would spend the next three months examining the decision closely and teasing out its implications for future port development.
“The need for a new container terminal and multi-purpose roll-on roll-off berth is urgent and Bord Pleanála had already accepted that our application clearly qualified for processing under the terms of the Strategic Infrastructure Act 2006,” he said.
“The Port of Cork needs to bring forward new proposals for facilities to be considered. We have an obligation to our customers and equally we have to provide the necessary infrastructure to handle growth in trade.
This is a setback and means that we must be vigorous and comprehensive with new proposals,” said Mr Keating, adding the port would only look at seeking a judicial review of the board’s decision as ” a very last option”.
Mr Keating said that that port will be able to continue operating at Tivoli up until 2012 but will face a serious challenge to cope with container traffic after that but the port authorities remained convinced that it will be able to find a solution to the matter.
All container traffic is currently shipped out of Tivoli by road and given that 60 per cent of its container business is destined for Co Cork, and the low level of rail connectivity in the county, it was difficult to see what role rail could play in developing business, he said.
The An Bord Pleanala decision was welcomed by Cork Harbour Environmental Protection Association, which had objected to the proposal.
The body said the National Roads Authority had indicated it would be 2011 at best before it could start upgrading the N28 to Ringaskiddy.