AN order preventing lands near the popular Golden Falls amenity area at Broadleas, Ballymore Eustace, being used for the extraction of sand and gravel was granted to Kildare County Council by the High Court yesterday.
The order was granted against a businessman, Mr Thomas P. Goode, Castlewarden, Straffan; his wife, Ms Theresa Goode; and Goode Concrete Ltd, which is involved in the sand and gravel business and has a concrete block production plant in Naas.
The council, which took the proceedings under planning legislation, submitted that it had a large number of complaints against the unauthorised use of the pit from people living in the locality. It claimed the work was seriously interfering with amenities enjoyed in the area.
When the case was at hearing last week, Mr Goode said that in 1991 he paid £205,000 for a total of 57 acres, about £3,500 an acre. Agricultural land at the time was going for about £2,000 an acre. The existing sand and gravel pit was of about 2.5 acres.
Mr Justice Morris, in his reserved judgment yesterday, said a sand and gravel pit was believed to have existed on the lands prior to the auction, and on completion the respondents stripped back the top soil and commenced to extract sand and gravel. An application for planning permission was refused in 1992.
During the previous ownership, the pit was used from time to time and the balance of the lands was used for agricultural purposes.
Alter the previous owner's death in 1991, his representatives made no use of the pit.
The respondents had extended the pit and intended developing the entire lands. They had taken 10,000 tonnes of sand and gravel from the pit in 1995, 33,000 in 1996 and 16,000 in January-March 1997.
Mr Justice Morris said that, if the present rate of extraction continued, the pit would have a life of about 13 years.