The main street of Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, is "suffering devastating safety and environmental impacts from the high level of truck movements generated by various parts of the Quinn Group", according to An Taisce.
The heavy traffic arises from a cement factory outside the village, without its own source of limestone on site; a nearby warehouse; and, just across the Border on the road to Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, a cement casting works and a glass factory.
To this range of operations, Quinn Group proposes to add a foam insulation factory near Ballyconnell, for which planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála last month, and two quarries, one 11 kilometres away, beyond Slieve Rushden.
"None of this should have happened in an area remote from national primary routes and the railway system," said a spokesman for An Taisce. It could undermine the tourism value of the cross-Border funded Shannon-Erne waterway, he said.
"What has happened on the R205 Ballyconnell to Derrylin road . . . is that a massive combination of large-scale industrial development has occurred without the land in question ever being zoned for such development", said An Taisce.
It pointed out that the R205 is the only road leading from Ballyconnell to the Border. The only alternative is a much more circuitous route, involving a diversion of eight kilometres, or a new road linking the cement plant with the quarry beyond Slieve Rushden. An Taisce has appealed against Cavan County Council's decision to grant permission to Quinn Group for the quarry complex on a 104-hectare (250-acre) site, including retention of an unauthorised development, at Aughrim, Ballyconnell.
A spokesman for Quinn Group said it "would prefer not to make any comment on it [the appeal] at the moment". He was "sure you can appreciate our predicament" as the matter had yet to come before An Bord Pleanála.
An Taisce said the heavy traffic problem in the area would be compounded by the large warehouse building now approved and by the board's recent decisions to grant permission for a concrete ready-mix plant and foam insulation factory.
The board justified its decisions on the basis of the alleged "established pattern of industrial development" in the area, without traffic management or environmental mitigation measures being put in place, said An Taisce.
No planning conditions had been specified requiring mitigation of traffic impacts on Ballyconnell's Main Street, which now faces the increased safety risk of tankers transporting pentane gas to the approved insulation factory, its spokesman said.
If any serious accident were to occur in Ballyconnell, he warned that An Bord Pleanála and Cavan County Council could face liability claims because of their failure to comply with the EU directive on environmental impact assessment in these cases.
Referring to the proposed quarry, An Taisce said it was a fundamental requirement of any planning application subject to such assessment that baseline information under various headings be provided on the current status of the site.
It said the council had conceded that the baseline information in Quinn Group's environmental impact statement was deficient regarding both ground-water and surface water quality as well as fish life in the Woodford River.
"Seven separate environmental mitigation conditions are left to be resolved inappropriately by an internal 'approval' procedure between Cavan County Council and the applicant", An Taisce complained, saying this excluded the public.
Major issues relating to the operation and reinstatement of the quarry site were also left to be resolved in this way, while the bond of €100,000 proposed to be lodged with the planning authority was "inadequate".
An Taisce said the archaeological significance of the site had already been demonstrated by the relocation of a megalithic tomb to the "suburban-garden type setting of the Quinn Group-owned Slieve Russell Hotel".
