The High Court has granted a stay on any works being carried out on a 32km greenway in Co Kerry, permission for which was granted by An Bord Pleanála last November.
Two sets of objections, from those concerned about the
environment and from another party comprised of landowners, were first before
the court yesterday and came before it again today.
One of the actions is being taken by Peter Sweetman, who
campaigns on environmental issues, and Kerry farmer James Clifford. Both are
challenging An Bord Pleanala’s decision to grant permission for the greenway.
They believe the permission granted breaches EU
directives on habitats and environmental impacts and did not protect the Kerry
slug and the lesser horseshoe bat.
Their objection is based on a failure to transpose into
Irish law an obligation to decide if an environmental impact assessment should
apply to a road.
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They argue that “chunks” of the initially proposed 32km
continuous greenway had been taken out and that this has altered the nature of
the proposed facility and resulted in it becoming a “different” project.
The second challenge is by a group of local landowners
whose lands are set to be acquired for the greenway project by compulsory
purchase orders (CPOs).
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They also want the permission granted for the greenway to
be quashed and are objecting based on the process by which permission for the
CPOs was granted.
Both cases are being taken against the State and An Bord
Pleanála with Kerry County Council as a notice party.
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys in court on Thursday granted
the parties behind the objections official permission to proceed with their
cases. He has fixed March 9th as the date on which both challenges would be
heard.
This date was fixed despite lawyers for both groups of
objectors arguing such a tight time frame would be very hard to meet.
However, the court was told Kerry County Council was so
concerned about the impact of the objections it wanted the soonest possible
court date. It was concerned the objections would impact on tourism and health
in south Kerry as well as funding for the project.
The long-mooted south Kerry greenway was last November
approved by An Bord Pleanála, paving the way for the 32km greenway along the
former Ring of Kerry railway line, from Glenbeigh to Caherciveen.
While some landowners had objected to the project, Kerry
County Council secured approval in November for the compulsory purchase of just
over 220 pieces of land from owners in almost 30 areas on the route.
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