Offaly meat plant site is unsuitable for development, claim objectors

A drone shot of the proposed Banagher Chilling site, including the disused abattoir buildings (bottom right) and the flooded Feenagh Stream in the field to their left, taken last week.

placeholder image — A drone shot of the proposed Banagher Chilling site, including the disused abattoir buildings (bottom right) and the flooded Feenagh Stream in the field to their left, taken last week.

LAST WEEK, objectors to a proposed meat plant near Banagher took a drone photo of the site, which, they claim, shows it's an unsuitable location because it's prone to flooding.

“This site, which our county council saw fit for the erection of a 40 million Euro plant for meat processing,” commented one of the objectors, Desmond Kampff, “is prone to flooding and therefore is completely unsuitable.”

He pointed out that the proposed plant will extend over nearly 20 hectares, covering a much larger area than the current disused abattoir buildings.

Mr Kampff and Gwen Wordingham, both living locally, initiated High Court proceedings against the proposed plant, called Banagher Chilling, in July. Mr Kampff said he was “critically concerned” about the potential environmental impacts of the proposed site three kilometres southeast of Banagher.

He said the facility will discharge its domestic and wastewater into the nearby Feeghroe stream (which runs along the western boundary of the 19.5 hectare site) and maintained this stream does not have the capacity to accommodate such discharges.

Their High Court case is claiming that An Bord Pleanála, when granting permission for Banagher Chilling to go ahead, broke the European Water Directive. An Bord Pleanála denies this charge.

Meanwhile, last week Deputy Barry Cowen said that objectors who lose High Court cases against major developments should foot the bill for the costs. The Deputy was speaking after confirmation that beef exports to China are resuming. Apparently, Banagher Chilling has Chinese backers, but the backers or the directors of the company have never been publicly named in the media. The largest company shareholder in Banagher Chilling Ltd is Tianwei Vision Holdings Ltd. Tianwei has a registered address in Ranelagh Dublin.

Banagher Chilling received permission from Offaly County Council in July 2020 for an extension to an existing disused abattoir along with a larger new facility at Boheradurrow and Meenwaun, Banagher. That decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanala and the board gave the green light for the plant in June last year. The site is located beside Five Roads Cross which is the junction of the R438 Borrisokane to Cloghan road and a local road (the L3010 which connects Banagher with Kinnitty).

Beef shipments to China were suspended in May 2020 because of an isolated case of atypical BSE. The Department of Agriculture has been attempting to have the market reopened since and last week Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said negotiations with the Chinese authorities had been successful following the provision of technical information by Ireland.

Deputy Cowen said the Chinese market has huge potential.