Waste water capacity scuppers Virginia housing development
The lack of wastewater treatment capacity in Virginia has once again scuppered plans for a multi-unit housing development in the east Cavan town.
The latest application to fall foul of objection is a proposed eight-home development at Yew Park by Mithbro Developments Ltd.
Cavan County Council granted planning permission for the development in November of last year with 20 conditions attached. However, that decision has been succesfully appealed to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).
The reasons for refusal by the national planning appeals board mirror those that saw a 78-home development at The Drumlins, Bailieborough Road, rejected back in 2017.
As with that application by Murmod Estimators, ABP has once again upheld IFI concerns regarding the considerably smaller Yew Park development, on a 0.28ha site to the north east of the existing Yew Park housing estate.
Planning history on the site includes previous permission for 34 houses, and two successful applications for 12 houses going back to 2014.
However, IFI maintains, as they did in submissions made to Cavan County Council, that the Virginia waste water treatment plant is already “over capacity” and, to allow the development, would only “add to its loading and further reduce water quality in Lough Ramor”. The plant is already regarded as having a ‘bad’ status, contrary to the EU Water Framework Directive.
It is stated in Irish Water’s 2018 Annual Environmental Report (AER) on the operation of the plant, that the plant has a capacity of 3,800PE and a peak hydraulic load of 1,500m3/day.
The Bord inspector accepts that the Yew Park housing addition, as standalone development, would only add a population equivalent of 15 personal or 0.4% to the capacity of the WWTP.
But the inspector goes on to state the WWTP at Virginia is “sub-standard” and “cannot adequately” cater for flows from the existing agglomeration during storm events.
They say therefore, if the application is granted, it “may be followed by applications for other small scale residential development, which may collectively add to the loading of the Virginia plant and increase the risk of pollution in storm events".
As a result, it was recommended that the Bord refuse planning permission.
Virginia is designated as a Tier 2 ‘Large Town’ in the Cavan County settlement hierarchy.
The council acknowledges that the Bailieborough Regional Water Supply Scheme, which serves the town and the waste water treatment plant are respectively working at, and over capacity, and that both issues must be addressed before further development can occur.
Irish Water, working in partnership with Cavan County Council, is understood to be progressing the design of an upgrade to the Virginia Wastewater Treatment Plant to increase capacity and support further economic development in the town.