A decade in the planning process

摘要

The north east waste management region issued its first waste management plan in 2000, which sought thermal treatment capacity. The first planning application for the Meath facility was submitted in November 2000, which was approved in March 2003 following appeals to An Bord Pleanala and an oral hearing. A waste licence application was submitted in parallel, in December 2001. This took considerably tonger and involved extensive consultation on how to treat the facility (as a waste facility or a production facility), modifications to existing legislation, and an oral hearing before the licence was granted in November 2005.By this time, the regional waste management plan had been reviewed and called for a larger facility to cope with the region's waste. The design was, therefore, revised to provide an extra 50,000t capacity and to include a number of technology improvements. A new planning application was submitted in February 2006. This was approved by June 2007, again following appeals to An Bord Pleanala and another oral hearing. The waste licence was subsequently reviewed in 2008 to include these changes for which a final decision was made in 2011. Finally, minor planning amendments were sought in 2009 to cater for detailed design changes, which made the building smaller in footprint. In the background to all of this, a judicial review was initiated by opposition groups to the project in February 2002, which went to the Supreme Court where the planning decision was upheld in May 2007. Overall, this made the Meath waste-to-energy plant one of the most scrutinised facilities ever to go through the planning and licensing system.