AN APPEAL has been lodged to An Comisíun Pleanála (ACP) after planning for a controversial biomethane plant in Bruree, County Limerick, was rejected by Limerick City and County Council.
CycleØ Limited IE – which builds, owns, and operates biomethane plants across Europe – filed planning requests with the local authority for a large-scale plant at Cappanihane in Bruree, near Morrissey’s Cross.
Over 400 submissions were made in relation to the plans, with 333 of these formally objecting to the plant’s proposed location, while the remainder showed their support for the project.
However, it has since been revealed that Gas Networks Ireland and CycleØ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate the development and integration of biomethane production into Ireland’s gas network.
The MOU re-iterated CycleØ’s intentions to invest 100m in four new agri-based biomethane plants, including the proposed plant in Cappanihane.
In a statement to the Limerick Post, a spokesperson for CycleØ confirmed that the company has appealed the decision made by Limerick City and County Council to refuse planning for the plant.
“We remain confident that our plans show that this is the right development in the right location and that we have fully addressed all the issues raised by the Council in their refusal decision,” the spokesperson added.
The decision by Limerick City and County Council was made on the basis that the proposal “would materially affect and interfere with the character of the historic landscape associated with Glenbrook House, which is a protected structure, and its demesne”.
The proposal was also considered “prejudicial to public health and seriously injurious to the residential and environmental amenity of the area”, given the potential for odour arising from the storage, handling, and processing of organic material and digestate.
Concerns surrounding the impact the plant would have on the Lower River Shannon and River Fergus Estuaries, the absence of a comprehensive proposal for the surface water design, and ensuring traffic generated by the proposed development could be safely accommodated were also listed.
