Permission granted for a gas-powered power plant
By Hayden Moore
PERMISSION has been granted for the development of a gas-powered power plant in Milltown, Newcastle.
Data and Power Hub Services Ltd, with an address in Meath, submitted their application for planning permission last year.
The site planned for the development in Milltown, Newcastle
It proposed that an existing single-storey stable building, a single-storey house called Little Acre and associated buildings which include a garage, will be demolished.
The demolition, which will also include existing two-storey dwelling of Bulmer, will be to make way for the construction of two two-storey Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities, each with three storey plant levels and ancillary development which will measure out to a total of 30,518sq.m floor area.
Overall the site takes in 8.2 hectares of land, with both of the ICT buildings including data storage rooms, electrical and mechanical plant rooms and include associated 25m high flues, which total 18 overall on each building.
Office administration areas, loading bays, maintenance spaces form part of the development.
Four pump rooms of 25sq.m each, plus water storage tanks, 36 emergency generators and two temporary single storey substations of 26sq.m will be spread across the two ICT buildings – which are located to the north-west and south-east of the land.
The developer has also included 80 car parking spaces, 17 sheltered bicycle parking spaces, associated lighting, fencing, signage, security gate, sprinkler tank and a wetland are all including in the plans for the site, which will be accessed from the Peamount Road.
Multiple residents from the surrounding area made submissions to South Dublin County Council requesting that they refuse planning permission – primarily on the grounds of pollution concerns.
Martin McNulty expressed concerns around nitrogen oxide omissions from “natural gas electricity generating plants”, outlining how families have chosen to live in the area because of the “good air quality”.
He believes that if the application gets the go ahead, “this peace and tranquillity would all be taken away from them”.
“I also have two wells on our site at Newcastle Golf Centre which serve our business and there could be dangerous pollution of many types from this development entering our water supply,” Mr McNulty said.
South Dublin County Council requested further information from the applicant last June, including justification for the form of energy production proposed in relation to climate change and renewable energy policy, and also the suitability of the site for a development of this nature.
That additional information was submitted by the applicant and Geological Survey Ireland, a division of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, later stated that it had “no specific comment or observations to make on this matter at this time”.
In the councils decision to grant permission they outlined, in a condition, that best construction practices must be detailed to include measures to prevent any pollutants from entering any surface water.
Appeals can be made to An Bord Pleanala against the decision or any conditions made in the council’s decision within four weeks of June 15, 2021.
