An Bord Pleanála has refused permission for a waste treatment and recycling plant in north Co Dublin.
Herhof Environmental Ltd, a joint venture involving property developers Treasury Holdings, had hoped to build the plant at Courtlough, southwest of Balbriggan, next to an interchange on the M1.
The plan comprised an office building, a plant to recycle municipal waste and turn the residue into "dry stabilate", a power plant with a connecting conveyor and two silos, and ancillary buildings.
But Fingal County Council's decision last June to refuse permission has now been upheld by the appeals board because of its "distant location from the waste centre of gravity of the Dublin region".
The board said hauling waste long distances by road to the Courtlough site would conflict with the "proximity principle" relating to waste management and would also "adversely affect" roads in the area. Another reason given was that the site, currently zoned for agriculture, is "remote from any established urban area" and the scale of the plant would be "visually obtrusive" in the rural landcape.
A spokesman for Herhof said it was obviously disappointed by the ruling and the "site-specific" reasons which the board had given. Asked if the company had picked the wrong site, he said: "We didn't think so." Herhof was interviewed recently in the selection process for a tender to provide a municipal incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin Bay.
The board's decision was warmly welcomed by the local Green Party TD, Mr Trevor Sargent. "A huge cloud of worry has now been lifted in the area as an incinerator would have been a death knell for local agriculture as well as being a huge health concern for local people," he said.
