Wicklow County Council's plan to open a major dump to serve the north-east of the county was quashed by the High Court yesterday following proceedings taken by Wicklow Heritage Trust.
The group welcomed the decision, saying the planner wanted to put a huge rubbish dump into the middle of a food-producing area. It claimed the dump would have taken millions of tonnes of rubbish over its lifetime and about two million gallons of sewage sludge each year.
It claimed the area proposed for the dump, four miles from Wicklow town, was the "Kitchen of Wicklow". It produced millions of gallons of milk and thousands of tonnes of vegetables and meat.
Wicklow Heritage Trust began proceedings against the council two years ago aimed at quashing a March 1996 decision to submit an environmental impact statement for certification to the Minister for the Environment regarding a site at Ballynagran, Coolbeg.
The site area included provision for a 300-acre land-fill site at Ballynagran, about four miles from Wicklow town and close to the Dublin-Wexford road.
The trust claimed the proposed landfill site was located in a rural area within the meaning of the Wicklow County Development Plan and, by virtue of the size, scale and extent of the site, that it contravened the provisions of the plan.
Members of Wicklow County Council had voted to reject the proposal for the Ballynagran site and called for other sites to be investigated.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, the High Court quashed the council's decision to submit the EIS to the Minister for certification and declared that the proposed development constituted a material contravention of the County Development Plan.
It also made an order restraining the proposal proceeding until the necessary statutory procedures had been carried out.
Wicklow Heritage Trust, in a statement, said it was glad to have had the support of the Ballynagran-Coolbeg Action Group, Wicklow Planning Alliance, IFA and thousands of concerned citizens in its efforts to protect Brittas Bay and the "Kitchen of Wicklow" at Ballynagran.