Cloghan Point, Whitehead on the East Antrim Coast - proposed location of a new oil terminal.
(Image: Hilary McCollum)
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council must redetermine a planning application for the £30m redevelopment of an oil terminal outside Whitehead following a quashing order in the High Court in Belfast on Monday.
Environmental campaigners were celebrating the outcome of the legal challenge by a member of the Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal (SWOT) campaign group and what they described as “a major climbdown” by the council which granted planning permission last September.
The council says the decision has been “quashed by consent on the limited ground that pre-determination hearings were not held in connection with the application”.
In a statement issued after the hearing, PILS director Maria McCloskey (Public Interest Litigation Support) which backed the SWOT campaigners, said:
“This challenge is a true ‘David and Goliath’ situation.
“We all want to have confidence that major environmental planning decisions are made properly. In the face of the significant resources of the council and a major fossil fuel company, SWOT took on this complex legal challenge to protect the natural environment that we all enjoy.
“Today, (Monday), the High Court has vindicated SWOT’s decision to question how the council processed this application. This is a public interest victory of seismic proportions.”
Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal campaigners celebrating outside Belfast High Court on Monday.
SWOT issued legal proceedings against both Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and the Department for Infrastructure after it considered that “decision-makers ignored SWOT’s repeated calls to review the decision”.
PILS says it now “urges the council to consider all the legal points raised in the challenge and, vitally, consider the issues of emissions as well as the potential cumulative impact of several significant fossil fuel developments planned for the east Antrim area”.
A spokesperson for Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said:
“The High Court has today (Monday) issued a quashing order in respect of the decision of the council to grant planning permission for the redevelopment of Cloghan Point oil terminal.
“The decision has been quashed by consent on the limited ground that pre-determination hearings were not held in connection with the application. No order was made as to the remaining grounds of challenge for judicial review. No order as to costs were made against council.
“Following the quashing of the decision, council must redetermine the application. It would not be appropriate for council to comment on the merits of the application whilst it is currently before it for redetermination. Further information on the redetermination of the application will be made available on the planning portal.”
In April, Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd decided not to call in the planning application for the planned redevelopment of the site which is located on the shore of Belfast Lough.
Planning permission was granted by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council for the oil terminal development despite almost 400 letters of objection expressing concerns over climate change, local roads, and the marine environment of Belfast Lough.
The application seeks to provide an import, storage and distribution facility for petrol, dual-purpose kerosene, gas oil and diesel as well as the import, storage and blending of bio-fuels.
It will also involve the demolition of existing buildings and chimney stack as well as jetty modifications, vapour recovery unit, four new storage tanks and operations building.
An existing oil terminal at Cloghan Point currently stores oil reserves for the Republic of Ireland. It was constructed more than 40 years ago to facilitate distribution of heavy fuel oil to Kilroot Power Station and Ballylumford Power Station in Islandmagee.
In February, Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal campaigners joined forces with environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Extinction Rebellion to ask the Department for Infrastructure to ‘call in’ Mid and East Antrim Council’s decision to approve the development of an oil terminal.
However, a letter issued to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council by the Department says:
“It has been concluded that the application does not raise issues of such importance that their impact is considered to extend to a sub-regional or regional level and the circumstances of this case are not exceptional such as to warrant the use of the Department’s ‘call-in’ power under section 29 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.”
It also stated that the borough council could continue to process the application accordingly.
Councillors were told previously by planners alternative sites have been “discounted for various reasons” and the proposed redevelopment of an existing site meets policy requirements and would have “no significant impact on the rural character”.
The Department for Infrastructure was asked for a comment.