South Inishowen against Asphalt Plant has issued the following:
There was some mis-information circulating last week that the planning permission on the Asphalt Plant had been rejected. It was not granted but the applicant, Moyle Plant have to put a notification into the paper so people can react to the 112 pages of new submissions that were added on the 5th of March. Once that notice goes into the papers, people will have an opportunity to object. We need the community to get involved and not allow this plant to come to our area.
It would seem that any person will be able to object to the new information that has been added to this application. In article 35 of the 2001 planning act it states when the council asks that a notice be taken in the paper ‘a submission or observation in relation to the further information or revised plans may be made in writing to the planning authority on payment of the prescribed fee.’ So if you want to object please go to the Donegal planning site and look up 2050159. The new submissions are all dated the 5th of March 2021.
If you don’t have time to do this the points of interest that have come out of these submissions are as follows: 2 x 30,000 litres of heating oil are to be delivered to the site each month to fire the burner. This is a total of 720,000.00 litres of oil per year to heat the smelter at a time that we are supposed to me moving away from the use of fossil fuels. This will create a lot of pollution in its own right. Between 19,000 and 20,000 lorry journeys will be created by this plant. The aggregate will be arriving in one type of lorry and then the asphalt will be sent out in insulated lorries. The lorry loads of aggregate will be coming from Churchill and will create a lot of heavy loads on the roads. This is a hazard for all road users from Churchill to the site in Gortnaskea, Burnfoot, which is half way on the road to muff. The proposed one way system within the plant will mean the full lorries of aggregate will be turning off the R239 at a very dangerous dip in the road. The Full lorries of Asphalt will be coming up onto the R239 at the top of a brae which will cause a traffic hazard for all road users.
There is reference to wheel washing to reduce the dust going onto the road network when these lorries are leaving the plant. This water will wash the contaminants into the local water way and eventually down to the Wildlife reserve of Inch. The plant will be running 7 days a week with the emissions coming out of the stack from 5.30AM will 8PM Monday to Friday and 5.30AM till 4PM at the weekends. This will also mean that the movement of lorry loads will be going 7 days a week. The Applicant references some scattered housing and only one house within 750m of the asphalt plant. The area that will be directly affected by a significant drop in property value and will cover pretty much every house from Muff to Burnfoot as no one in their right mind would want to raise a family under the emissions of an asphalt plant. We are talking about 100s of houses and on top of that the prevailing wind will carry the emissions into Derry and across to Co Derry and beyond to Coleraine.
Please object, you need to pay €20 to object. We will let you know when you can submit your objections but please get your letters started now. This is very important for all our futures. Oh and the picture, is what happens when an Asphalt Plant goes on fire!
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GMcC