Country Crest, the farming and food company, has been given the green light to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at its food production facilities in Lusk, Co Dublin.

The proposed AD plant will be supplied with around 60,000 tonnes of feedstock per year, consisting mainly of grass and whole-crop silage, vegetable and food processing by-products, slurry and manures and poultry litter.

The plant was refused permission by Fingal County Council last year on three grounds, including its belief that the plant would not serve the local rural community, that the development was not acceptable under the zoning of the site and that it would be visually obtrusive and would seriously injure the amenities of the area.

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Country Crest had previously secured planning permission for an AD plant on the same site in 2012 and after obtaining an extension in 2018, that permission expired in 2023.

Strong appeal

Country Crest subsequently appealed this refusal to An Bord Pleanála (An Coimisiún Pleanála), where it argued strongly against the decision.

The company’s appeal stated that the “tone of the planner’s report is somewhat disingenuous in that it fails to accept the bona fides of this application”.

It argued that sustainable farming is at the heart of everything it does and that the AD proposal is a further extension of this philosophy. The appeal subsequently challenged the three reasons for refusal.

Green light

An Coimisiún Pleanála overturned Fingal County Council’s refusal and granted permission subject to conditions. In the inspector’s report, the Coimisiún stated that it was satisfied that the project would not result in any significant direct, indirect or cumulative/in-combination effects on the environment, subject to the proposed mitigation measures being implemented.

It took multiple national and European policies, as well as the Fingal County Development Plan, into account in its decision.

It concluded that the proposed development would therefore be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

Conditions

The planning permission was granted subject to 18 conditions, including limiting when feedstock can be delivered, the planting of landscape measures, adding a second electric vehicle charging point and paying a financial contribution to Fingal County Council.