Fianna Fail TD for Wicklow Mr Dick Roche has warned there could be "huge cost implications" for Wicklow County Council arising out of the High Court judgment on the Blessington development plan.
Wicklow County Council had granted Roadstone Dublin Ltd planning permission to quarry 80 acres of land at Glen Ding Wood, although the rezoning of the land for quarrying had now been quashed, he said.
"I believe the council behaved in an astonishing manner over this. When this matter was already before the High Court, it was imprudent in the extreme to grant planning permission. The reality is that they now find themselves with a crisis on their hands." The Wicklow County Secretary, Mr Bryan Doyle, said the council was still studying the judgment and was not in a position to make a comment.
A spokesman for Roadstone Dublin Ltd, which owns the 80acre site at Glen Ding Wood, said the company had noted the decision of the High Court and was now "considering its options".
Mr Frank Corcoran, chairman of the Blessington Heritage Trust, which is seeking to have the rezoning of Glen Ding Wood investigated by the Flood Planning Tribunal, said this was the second time the organisation had taken High Court proceedings to prevent "the destruction of the area".
On both occasions Wicklow County Council and Roadstone Dublin Ltd had opposed these attempts. Mr Corcoran stressed that the area rezoned by Wicklow County Council in September 1996 was of great archaeological significance and should be protected by a preservation order.
"There are three layers of archaeology on this rezoned area. There is a 3,000-year-old bronze age deposition lake which has been visited by archaeologists and tourists from America, Scandinavia, Russia, Germany, Holland, Japan and Australia," said Mr Corcoran.
In the judgment given on Wednesday, Ms Justice McGuinness found the decision by Wicklow County Council to adopt the development plan was outside the time limit set for a review.
The judge held that the Minister for the Environment had jurisdiction to extend the period for review, as he had done, but that such an extension was not retrospective.
She also held that on the face of the council's minutes of September 9th, 1996, as amended by the minutes of October 14th, 1996, the then chairman, Mr Godfrey Timmons, was "factually incorrect" in rejecting an amendment put forward by Councillor Cullen.
He had proposed that Glen Ding Wood should be zoned as an amenity area in the development plan.