Belfast Lough oil terminal permission quashed at High Court
Planning permission for a major oil terminal on Belfast Lough has been quashed on Monday morning at Belfast High Court. The decision, which Mid and East Antrim Council accepted, was announced during the review of a case taken against both the council and Department for Infrastructure by campaign group Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal.
Mid and East Antrim Council greenlit the controversial £30m oil terminal last September despite 400 objections.
But campaigners delivered 200 more letters to the Department for Infrastructure asking them to ‘call it in’, which means the department taking the decision on the planning application, amid concerns about the environmental and climate impacts.
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Following that plea, Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd decided not to ‘call in’ the application leaving the council to make the final decision.
So campaigners began two judicial reviews. The one against the council argued the Council “acted unlawfully in failing to hold a predetermination hearing” before giving the project final approval.
Public Interest Litigation Support helped Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal take their cases.
Its director and solicitor Maria McCloskey told us: “Before we got to court this morning, we got an agreement from the council that they had acted unlawfully in failing to hold a predetermination hearing and accordingly agreed to quash their decision to grant planning permission.
“Ultimately this is a great victory for the campaign group.”
The judicial review against the Department for Infrastructure over failure to call the decision in and also failure to defer it to the Executive was stayed by the court.
The judge heard how DfI felt the case against it was now academic after the “order by consent quashing planning approval” passed.
Ms McCloskey added: “The order against the department has been stayed because we haven’t yet seen what’s going to happen with this application for planning permission.
“The council have agreed to review their decision and we hope they will take on all of the points we have raised in our proceedings.
“We also hope that the department will look at the matter again and consider whether to call this matter in.
“We do hope they do that because we consider that there are significant implications for the entire region, if not the entire island of Ireland in terms of reliance on fossil fuel industries.”
Clodagh Miskelly, who took the legal action for Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal group, said: “We are absolutely delighted that we secured a quashing of the planning permission.
“We also heard from the Department for Infrastructure that they have the intention to consider whether they will call it in.
“This is the best thing we could have hoped for today and it’s fantastic news after six years of fighting for so many reasons.
“This has impacts on the whole of Northern Ireland and the whole of Belfast Lough.
“It has impacts on the marine environment, the local environment, economy, net zero targets and our energy strategy.
“We’ve got a way to go to make sure it doesn’t happen but this is a fantastic victory.”
A spokesperson for Mid and East Antrim Council said the oil terminal's planning permission was "quashed by consent on the limited ground that pre-determination hearings were not held in connection with the application".
They added: "No order was made as to the remaining grounds of challenge for judicial review.
"Following the quashing of the decision, Council must redetermine the application. It would not be appropriate for Council to comment the merits of the application whilst it is currently before it for redetermination. Further information on the redetermination of the application will be made available on the planning portal."
DfI has also been contacted for comment.
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