Plans to extract some two million tonnes of stone from Ballythomas Hill, near Gorey, Co Wexford, are being strongly resisted by local residents who maintain that the proposed quarry would damage the environment.
Hudson Concrete Ltd, based in Arklow, Co Wicklow, has sought planning permission from Wexford County Council to establish a hard rock quarry covering a 42-acre site on the slopes of the hill, which is designated as a "sensitive landscape area" in the county plan.
The planning application and environmental impact statement (EIS) were prepared on Hudson's behalf by Bord na Móna. Coillte Teoranta, the State forestry company, has also consented to give way leave over its land to provide access to the proposed quarry.
The EIS claims that the development will not adversely affect the scenic quality of the landscape because it would be screened on three sides by trees and on the fourth by a ridge, and that it would not be visible except from higher elevations, such as Croghan Hill.
Local residents, many of them living in recently built houses, have formed an action group to oppose the plan. They say there was no prior consultation with them, contrary to the EIS guidelines, which state that all interested parties should be consulted.
The Ballythomas Action Group has held two protest meetings, attended by up to 200 people, and is stepping up the campaign by lobbying local councillors and TDs, leafleting Sunday Masses and holding sponsored runs to raise money for its cause.
"In terms of community activism, it has been one of the most interesting demonstrations of rural people power around here in a while in defence of the countryside", commented Gorey Fianna Fáil councillor Malcolm Byrne, who is backing the local residents.
"This area is close to the Wicklow border, about half way between Gorey and Tinahely, and is one of the most picturesque landscapes in the southeast", he said. "There are huge fears among locals that the planned quarry will destroy the face of the community".
Noting that Ballythomas National School is just half a mile from the site, the action group has expressed concern for the safety of its 55 pupils given that an estimated 228 trucks per week would be servicing the proposed quarry via narrow country roads and bridges.
Local residents are also concerned that the value of their homes will be diminished, although the EIS states that this is "unlikely" as the area of extraction would be some distance away from houses and measures would be taken to minimise its environmental impact.
Under the Wexford county plan, only "small-scale development required to meet the social and economic needs of rural communities and small-scale tourist and outdoor sport and recreational development" is permissable in sensitive lasndscape areas.
The EIS maintains that the quarry would fit into this category - a claim the residents dismiss as "absurd". They point to the fact that 100,000 tonnes of rock would be excavated from Ballythomas Hill annually - a total of two million tonnes over its 20-year lifespan.
They also reject a claim in the EIS that one of the benefits of this development would be the potential to develop the worked-out quarry as a tourism facility. "Old quarries are well-known as wild refuges and are often considered visually interesting in their own right", it says.
A spokesman for Hudson Concrete said the company was "in close consultation with the community and its public representatives". Meetings were being arranged as "the developer is keen to have an open door policy to listen to people's concerns".
