Waste processing plant rejected by Tipperary council

A Co Tipperary company producing compost using worms faces having to demolish a number of buildings on its site.

A Co Tipperary company producing compost using worms faces having to demolish a number of buildings on its site.

North Tipperary County Council has refused permission to Shannon Vermi-composting Ltd, of Coolross, Rathcabbin, Roscrea, to retain and complete a biodegradable waste-material reception and mixing bay area.

The bay is used for the storage and processing of organic and domestic waste which the worms convert into compost.

The council has also refused to allow the retention of underground leachate tanks, security fencing, a weighbridge, concrete roadway, hardcore areas and composting screening plant.

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Plans by the company to build 11 mushroom/vermicomposting tunnels and a new canteen and office are among the structures which the council has rejected.

An application for the development of an effluent system, wheel wash and car parking facilities has also been turned down.

The council received 40 individual objections and one signed by up to 500 people from the community who are opposed to the developments.

In July, the council failed to secure a temporary injunction in the Circuit Court to limit the company's operations, after Judge Olive Buttimer was told that food for the company's worm stock would run out in three weeks if organic waste could not be brought on site.

A full hearing of the case is due in October. Meanwhile, an application by the company for a waste licence, to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), is being opposed by South Constituency MEP Ms Kathy Sinnott.

Ms Sinnott is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment and Public Health.

Ms Sinnott, in her letter of objection to the EPA, said she had met with concerned residents of the village of Rathcabbin and had noted "an awful stench" in the area of the company's site.

Ms Sinnott has written to the North Tipperary county manager, Mr Terry O'Niadh, to make a submission to the EPA to urge against the issuing of a waste licence for the composting of 20,000 tonnes of waste per year.