Planning submission weighs in against concrete plant

THE O’Briensbridge Community Group has lodged a submission to An Bord Pleanála supporting a recent decision taken by Limerick County Council who ruled the transportation of material to facilitate a new dry batch concrete plant in Montpelier as “inappropriate”.
O’Connell Concrete, which is seeking to overturn this decision, has insisted there will be no net increase in traffic movements crossing O’Briensbridge if this development gets the green light.
Patricia Thornton from Dublin-based planning consultants Tom Philips and Associates argued in an appeal to the board that the scale of the proposed development is relatively modest with import and export of all materials from O’Connell Quarry in Ardnacrusha resulting in about 20 truck movements daily.
O’Connell Concrete is operating a concrete dry batch plant on an adjoining site with full planning permission, which is being rented from Dereen Concrete Limited.
The company has pledged to cease operations at the adjoining site and move all plant and machinery to the subject site if its appeal is successful.
Group chairman, Mick Murtagh, stated the single lane bridge in O’Briensbridge is unsafe for large volumes of traffic due to a lack of pedestrian access and any development that could increase extra heavy goods vehicle haul traffic should be discouraged.
“The location of the batch concrete site appeal is just across the road from the Montpelier Flood Plains and has a number of watercourses that run into the River Shannon close by. The River Shannon is an SAC at this point and is also very prone to flooding. When the river floods, it ends up on the doorstep of the appeal site and the watercourses back up into the site.”
He claimed that because of the very poor percolation on the appeal site, these watercourses are at risk and a bore well in the village of Montpelier  supplying  the three villages of Montpelier, O’Briensbridge and Bridgetown with drinking water could also be put at risk of contamination.