Would you like to join communities and environmental campaign groups from the shores of Carlingford Lough in supporting the implementation of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council’s excellent Local Biodiversity Action Plan, demanding the removal of an illegal dump and an ugly industrial installation from an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and, at the same time,  saving a local corporate body the expense and embarrassment of trying to hide that installation with giant sheets of fake scenery?

 

If you would, then you’ve come to the right place! Please read on. 

 

This petition aims to give a voice to all those who have been excluded from the process of notification, consultation and decision-making in a secretive and controversial  planning approval which was signed off in 2015 by just one person, the Chief Planning Officer of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. (NMDCC)

 

To prevent any form of buck-passing, this petition addresses the four bodies who have the power and the responsibility to clear the illegal dump and rescind that planning approval. As we list the four demands of this petition, please let us introduce you to each of the bodies to whom they are addressed :

 

Body One : Yara, the worlds largest manufacturer of nitrate fertiliser, the company that applied for planning permission to NMDDC for the building of a massive 3200 tonne capacity, 1 km long, liquid CO2 installation at Narrow Water, Warrenpoint, as close as 200 metres to surrounding homes and within 5 metres of some local businesses. The company has a well documented history of using extraordinary powers of persuasion - our research has revealed that in 2015, the year in which the planning approval was granted, Yara faced bribery charges and paid fines of 295 million Norwegian crowns ($35.91 million) in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Norwegian history.

 

(Source Reuters : www.reuters.com/article/us-yara-intl-lawsuit-idUSKCN0PH1LY20150707

 

DEMAND ONE.  That the CO2 installation is removed from Warrenpoint without delay.

 

 

 

Body Two : The local corporate body known as Warrenpoint Harbour Authority (WHA) who made a deal with Yara for the “permanent lease” of the CO2 site.

 

The WHA-Yara deal leading to the CO2 installation represents one part of the expansionist aspirations described in The WHAMP (The Warrenpoint Harbour Authority Master Plan 2018-2043).

 

Our research suggests that prior to WHA’s current attempts to hide the ugliness of the CO2 tanks with fake scenery, an earlier attempt to hide the CO2 site was made with a “landscaping” process which included the dumping of building rubble and assorted rubbish on the banks of the Clanrye/Newry River where it enters Carlingford Lough Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI). As a result of our exposure, this illegal dumping is now being investigated as an environmental crime.

 

Demand Two. That WHA shows respect towards all nature in and on both sides of Carlingford Lough (human nature included) by cooperating in the removal of the tanks, removal of the illegal dump and by revamping The WHAMP to reduce the kind of expansionist encroachment and destruction of habitat which the Council’s Local Biodiversity Action Plan seeks to prevent. 

 

Three : NMDCC. The Council’s (unelected) Chief Planning Officer signed off the 2015 planning approval without public consultation, without consulting elected councillors, without Habitats Regulations Assessment, (despite expert advice from Northern Ireland Environment Agency that the CO2 installation could have an adverse effect on protected areas) and, as confirmed during questions in Dáil Éireann on September 16th 2020, without trans-boundary consultation with Louth County Counci.

 

Demand Three. That CEO /NMDDC rescinds the planning approval before further damage is done to nature and the integrity of the Council’s Biodiversity Action Plan which purports to protect it.

 

Body Four : Department for Infrastructure. The Department’s responsibilities include the oversight and scrutiny of councils, in a manner that upholds the credibility and integrity of the planning system. The WHA-Yara CO2 case has been raised in the NI Assembly during Ministerial Questions on four occasions -  to date there have been no meaningful signs of action coming from the Minister for Infrastructure.

 

Demand Four. That the Minister for Infrastructure assists and supports NMDDC in upholding the credibility and integrity of the planning system by rescinding the WHA-Yara planning approval and by implementing those sections of the Local Biodiversity Action Plan which seek to protect threatened habitats.

 

We hope that you will consider signing and sharing this petition.

Although relating to one specific area, the case at the heart of this petition contains many of the classic and timeless elements to be found in universal stories - small communities fighting to protect nature under threat from what corporate greed perceives as need.

 

Together we can help everyone to celebrate and protect our life support system of nature. Please add your name and join us in encouraging our local Council to implement a Local Biodiversity Action Plan of which we can all be proud.