A legal challenge affecting the giant new Quinn Glass bottle plant at Ellesmere Port (north-west England) began on 27 September 2005 in the High Court, London.
Rockware Glass claims the decision by C…
A legal challenge affecting the giant new Quinn Glass bottle plant at Ellesmere Port (north-west England) began on 27 September 2005 in the High Court, London. Rockware Glass claims the decision by Chester City Council to grant Quinn Glass a Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) Permit to operate the plant was “unlawful”. Rockware also claims that the council should have waited for the result of a planning inquiry into the plant ordered by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and due to begin on 22 November 2005. Quinn started the first of its 600 tonne furnaces and began making glass in April 2005, although it is not yet fully operational. Mr.Richard Gordon QC, for Rockware, told Judge Andrew Gilbart there is currently no valid planning permission for the Quinn Glass plant. Both Chester City Council and neighbouring authority, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, are in favour of the plant, which will have the capacity to make 1.2 billion glass containers a year. Mr.Gordon told the judge Chester City Council had decided to grant Quinn Glass the required PPC Permit on the same day that the planning application was called in by Mr.Prescott. Mr.Gordon argued Chester had failed to follow government guidelines requiring that PPC permits only be issued if the “Best Available Techniques” (BAT) are to be used to minimise emissions of potential pollutants, particularly oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Cross-Fired Regenerative Furnaces are used at the plant, and Rockware claims the council “erred in law” when it accepted they were BAT-compliant. The company says new Oxyfuel Furnaces, which emit lower quantities of NOx, should have been considered as an alternative. However, Chester City Council insists it was right to reject Oxyfuel Furnaces as the technology was “untried” in the UK on such a scale and would also require on-site storage of large amounts of potentially hazardous oxygen. Acting for Quinn Glass, Mr.Reuben Taylor alleged that Rockware“s “only interest in commencing these proceedings is to prevent competition from entering into the market”. He argued Rockware had no legal “interest” in the environmental impact of the Quinn plant and its “unarguable” judicial review challenge should be dismissed on that ground alone. Mr. Taylor said that, in any event, the plant, when fully operational, “would be the cleanest container glass plant in the UK”. Even if the strict emission limits laid down by the city council were exceeded, there was no evidence that there would be any significant effect on local air quality or any risk of harm to human health, he added. Mr. Taylor told the judge that claims that the council erred in rejecting the option of Oxyfuel Furnaces were also “fundamentally misconceived”. He added that, if Rockware“s challenge succeeds, and the plant“s furnace has to be shut down, the costs will be enormous. The GBP 120 million plant received a GBP 4.9 million grant from the North West Development Agency.