Go ahead given for waste water treatment plant in north Louth

Louth County Council has given the go ahead for a temporary foul sewer pumping station and a temporary wastewater treatment plant outside Dundalk.

Groveview Builders Ltd applied in February of this year, for the development at Raynoldstown Village, Haynestown, Dundalk, seeking planning permission for the construction of a temporary foul sewer pumping station and a temporary wastewater treatment plant to pre-treat wastewater prior to discharging to the public sewer.

It included provision for vehicular access via the substantially completed internal estate road constructed under a previous planning application, as well as all associated development works on a site with an area of c.0.31Ha at Raynoldstown Village.

Louth County Council granted planning permission for the development on 4 July, subject to 14 planning conditions. 

A significant number of submissions had been made to Louth County Council in relation to the development. Residents of the Dundoogan housing estate in Dundalk, along with their neighbours, also raised a petition against the plans.

In their petition, the residents listed five main points raised in their letter to Louth County Council, which included that the development would be a source of foul odour, air pollution & noise within a developed residential area; the proposed Development contravenes the permitted Masterplan for Raynoldstown; and that they believed that the temporary nature description of the works proposed is misleading.

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The residents said in their petition that "the Engineer’s Report states that 2030 is the earliest that the public proposed connection could be completed which is a five years minimum duration of operation for this wastewater development and likely much longer during which the Applicant’s Company could have been dissolved or no longer in operation in the area, falling on Louth County Council to take these works in charge with the responsibility to manage them.

"We strongly request that this application is refused and that no more residential units are permitted in the area until the existing Blackrock Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade works are complete while the Raynoldstown Creche & Community accommodation is prioritised for delivery over any more dwellings."

One of the conditions included by Louth County Council when granting planning permission, was that: "This permission is for a temporary period of five years from the date of the grant of permission after which time all structures shall be decommissioned and removed from the site at the developers expense and the lands revert back to their previous use unless a separate planning permission has first been granted by the Planning Authority or An Coimisiun Pleanala (on appeal) for the maintenance and operation of the structures on site."