A controversial waste paper and plastic recycling facility in an area of special amenity on the Ring of Kerry needs planning permission and is not exempted development, An Bord Pleanála has ruled.
Nearby guesthouse operators as well as residents at Fossa, near Killarney, last year complained about the setting up of the facility on the site of a long-established precision or light engineering factory in the Gortacollopa area on the busy N72 tourist route.
Kerry County Council had also issued an order that the waste processing operation constituted a change of use in the factory premises.
However, consultants for KSP Recycling Services Ltd argued it was exempt under the planning and development regulations 2001 because waste management activities were industrial in character. They took the matter to An Bord Pleanála.
Their submissions referred to previous decisions by the board in the case of dry waste facilities at Ringaskiddy in Cork and Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
They said their waste permit restricted their activities to shredding and baling and short-term storage, and no change of use was occurring.
However, senior planning inspector Robert Ryan, in a detailed report referring to various sections of the Planning and Waste Management Acts, said the building was effectively being used as "a waste transfer station".
The operation was not industrial but was waste management or recycling, which by its nature was different from light industrial activity.
Mr Ryan also found the nature of the recycling activity had planning implications.
"In my view the division of the factory into two separate units does have planning implications which need to be addressed relating to traffic generation, hours of operation, noise, storage, signage, lighting, boundary treatment, landscaping," he said.
The board in its decision said the process "does constitute a material change of use". The development was not exempted.