A waste collection and disposal company which claimed that certain conditions imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its licence would put it out of business has failed to secure leave to bring a High Court challenge to those conditions.
Mr Justice Ó Caoimh ruled that Yellow Bins (Waste Disposal) Limited had failed to show the substantial grounds required to bring a judicial review challenge.
Yellow Bins has been operating a waste collection, recovery and disposal business at premises at Donore, Caragh, Naas, Co Kildare, since 1982. It claimed that conditions imposed on its licence by the EPA were irrational and made in excess of the powers of the agency.
The company claimed that one condition restrained it from collecting waste until certain infrastructure - a waste/transfer recovery building - was in place. It claimed the EPA had acted in breach of its powers and against natural and constitutional justice when it knew, or should have known, that the company had applied for permission for a waste recycling premises and other works and An Bord Pleanála had refused permission on appeal. Because the EPA had not consulted with Kildare County Council, the planning authority, it had acted in breach of its powers under the Waste Management Act (WMA) 1996, it claimed.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Ó Caoimh said Mr Patrick Kelly, managing director of Yellow Bins, had acknowledged that the WMA required the company to apply to the EPA, prior to October 1st, 1999, for a waste licence for the disposal of waste at its existing waste transfer facility.
Yellow Bins had applied on September 30th, 1999, to the EPA for a licence. On May 13th, 2002, the EPA notified Yellow Bins it proposed to grant a licence and attached a copy of the proposed licence.
Two days later, on May 15th, 2002, An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission for erection and use of a building for waste recycling and transfer. Mr Kelly said he instructed Environmental and Resource Management Limited to object to several conditions attached to the draft licence, which objections were made in a letter of June 10th, 2002. On October 8th, 2002, the EPA granted a licence subject to the disputed conditions.
However, in an affidavit, Mr Thomas O'Connell SC had indicated his belief that Yellow Bins had no planning permission for its actual activities at Donore.