A group of Galway locals who are at their “wits’ end” are urging the High Court to order a halt to a quarry’s allegedly intensifying operations.
Oughterard-based Corrib Community Association claim the site operated by Killola Quarries has “significant impacts” on the local environment, the mental health of locals and the structural integrity of some of their properties.The claims are denied.
The group’s director, engineer Tomás Doyle, whose home at Rosscahill is about 400 metres from the Killola quarry, said in a sworn statement that the alleged significant increase in the intensity of operations at the quarry is predominantly associated with the supply of aggregate for the Moycullen bypass.
Mr Doyle said the group was formed after it became apparent that Galway County Council– the agency responsible for enforcing planning and environmental law– was “hopelessly conflicted” in the matter as it allegedly entered a contract for the construction of the bypass with a firm that sources aggregates from the quarry.
The council, which is a notice party in the High Court case, allegedly issued enforcement notices against the quarry’s owner, Michael Power, and operator, Noel Welby, in September 2022 requiring them to stop quarrying and to clear the site immediately.
However, Mr Doyle alleges, this did not happen and the notices are the subject of judicial review challenges by the owner and operator.
Mr Doyle said blasts continue, with one causing his whole house to “tremor”. More recently, he said, the “constant rock breaking was like Chinese torture”.
Reading planning documents related to the quarry, Mr Doyle said, it became apparent conditions were not being complied with, including in relation to operating times, dust, noise or vibrations.
He said he could often hear work underway from about 6am until 11pm, but sometimes the work continues past midnight.
A meeting attended by between 80 to 100 people in September 2022 revealed a “real feeling of anger” among the community, he went on.
Childminder Hilary Sharpe said in a sworn statement that children she looks after in her house, some 300 metres from the quarry, are “terrified” of the blasts, while her dogs are “petrified”. She now brings the children and dogs away whenever a blast is due to occur.
The dust is affecting her asthma, and she has cracks in her home she believes are from the explosions.
“The local community are at our wits’ end with this unregulated quarry… We have been forced to take this legal action to defend our families and our homes,” she added.
Also supporting the case, Dóirín McLoughlin, who lives about 200 metres from the site, said the quarry’s operations did not bother her initially but the activity has “escalated at a mad rate”.
Her black car is covered in a “white skim” each day, while she and her partner are often awakened by the sound of mechanical digging at 6.30am, she wrote.
The Corrib Community Association’s case came before Mr Justice Richard Humphreys at the High Court for the first time this week.
The group’s barrister John Kenny, instructed by FP Logue solicitor Eoin Brady, said he intends to bring an application seeking an injunction to restrain the quarry’s operations until their court case concludes.
Michael O’Donnell BL, for the respondents, said the challenge should not have been brought in the High Court and should be handled by a lower court.
Mr O’Donnell, instructed by O’Connell Clarke Solicitors, said he expects he will oppose any application for the case to be entered into the High Court’s planning list, and he may seek to have the case remitted to a lower court.
The judge adjourned the case for one week.
