Council is accused as sewage kills fish stocks
Monday March 30 2009
SEWAGE is pouring into a river, decimating fish stocks, after a local authority ignored advice to cease allowing building on an overloaded system.
Mayo County Council is sanctioning several major developments in a town, despite a warning from the planning appeal board that housing schemes should not be built until the capacity of the area's 70-year-old sewage treatment facility was improved.
Campaigners claim Mayo County Council prioritised the interests of business over the environment by giving planning permission for over 180 houses, a hotel and an enterprise centre in Kiltimagh -- birthplace of pop impresario Louis Walsh -- despite the warning from An Bord Pleanala.
Ironically, a 25-house development turned down by An Bord Pleanala when it issued its warning was later granted planning permission by the council when a new application was submitted.
However, no significant upgrade works on the sewage plant, which only provides primary treatment of waste waters, had taken place in the intervening period.
The housing developments, a 44-bedroom hotel and a 315sq metre office building, were all sanctioned after 2000 when the board issued its warning.
Although the council says it has now prioritised the upgrading of the sewage treatment plant, a row between the local authority and the Department of Environment over funding has delayed the improvements.
Concerned anglers have questioned the council's planning policy and say untreated effluent is now flowing directly into the River Pollagh, a tributary of the River Moy.
Before it became polluted, the Pollagh was renowned for brown trout fishing and was also an important salmon spawning river.
"Serious questions need to be answered as to how almost 200 houses, a hotel and an office building could be given permission by the council after An Bord Pleanala voiced serious concerns about any future development in the town without adequate sewage treatment facilities being put in place," said Declan Foley, a spokesman for Kiltimagh Angling Club.
Decimation
"It appears the council has favoured development over the environment and the past 10 to 15 years have seen the gradual decimation of fish stocks and fly hatches.
"The town can no longer avail of game angling facilities nor can we attract visiting anglers as we did in the past."
Mr Foley said there had been "a serious lack of accountability from the council" as the problem was raised by the North Western Regional Fisheries Board as far back as 1978.
Mayo County Council said in a statement that it was "happy" with its policy regarding planning in Kiltimagh.
The council's senior executive officer John Condon also denied suggestions that planners had been instructed not to use inadequate capacity at the sewerage plant as a reason to refuse planning applications.
"This claim is totally without foundation," he said.
- SHANE PHELAN
