Incinerator planning file goes missing

The entire 2004 planning file for one of the most controversial projects in Meath for decades - the construction of the €300 million Indaver incinerator at Carranstown, Duleek, now currently underway - has mysteriously gone missing within Meath County Council. The file, contained in between seven and eight boxes, has not been seen since it was last inspected two months ago by a Duleek community activist, one of the most prominent objectors to the project. Meath County Council has admitted this week that the file 'cannot be located at the moment' and a frantic search for the substantial file is now under way in Meath County Council"s offices in Navan. At the same time, both Indaver and Meath County Council have strongly denied a suggestion by the activist, Pat O"Brien, that the incinerator is under construction in the incorrect location on the Carranstown site. Meath Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee said that he is not happy with the planning situation as outlined to him so far and is calling on the Minister for the Environment John Gormley to clarify the situation regarding the exact location on the site of the construction work on the controversial municipal waste incinerator. Meath County Council director of communications Bill Sweeney stressed that the subsequent 2005 planning application by Indaver was intact and available for inspection. However, seven or eight boxes containing the original 2004 application by the company could not be located at the moment, he admitted. 'We have to carry out a physical search of the archives, which is a massive operation, and we are trying to do that. There is a possibility that the files were placed in the wrong place,' he said. Mr O"Brien, who has supported calls for an inquiry into the planning situation in the county, said he was amazed while carrying out research for an article on planning to find that the 'whole and entire planning application for this project, one of the largest in the country, has gone missing completely from Meath County Council"s planning offices'. He said: 'That must be a first; no wonder people are calling for an inquiry.' He claimed that Indaver had started work on the incinerator one kilometer away from the site where it is supposed to locate the building under its own environmental impact statement, and under the planning permission it had been granted. 'Can anyone explain this to me?' he asked. 'Why was the rush, and why wasn"t this serious planning matter clarified within further information requests before planning was finally granted?' A spokesperson for Indaver said the company did not agree with the assertion that the planning permission for the Meath waste-to-energy facility was invalid because the site location was incorrect. 'Indaver"s planning application has been adjudicated on by Meath County Council and An Bord Pleanala, neither of whom has found it defective in the way suggested. Indeed, a previous application was tested in the High Court and Supreme Court where An Bord Pleanala was vindicated,' Indaver added. 'For completeness, Indaver has sought legal advice on the matter. We have been advised that there may have been a misnderstanding of the site location for this development and the planning permission that has been granted. The final permission was granted by An Bord Pleanala on 15th October 2007. We are advised that the assertion has no basis in fact or law,' the spokesperson said. Meath County Council"s Mr Sweeney said the council had carried out an inspection of the Indaver site two weeks ago and said it was 'quite satisfied' that the company was building in accordance with its planning permission. 'Any suggestion that the company is building the incinerator in the wrong place is off the wall,' he said.