Container glass manufacturing company Ardagh Glass has lost the first round of a legal battle in Britain that sought to force a local council to close the Quinn Glass site in Chester, one of the large…
Container glass manufacturing company Ardagh Glass has lost the first round of a legal battle in Britain that sought to force a local council to close the Quinn Glass site in Chester, one of the largest in Europe. Ardagh, which has a factory in the area, maintains that the Quinn Glass site should not be granted retrospective planning permission for its factory. The local council meeting scheduled for February was expected to make a determination on a fresh planning application put forward by Quinn Glass for its facility. The meeting, however, was postponed after Ardagh Glass said it was starting legal action to prevent the council from granting permission for the site, stating that that local planning authorities had no power to grant retrospective planning permission, since Environmental Impact Assessment – required by EU law – had not been carried out by Quinn Glass. Ardagh also said that local authorities should have issued an enforcement order against Quinn Glass instructing it to cease operation and to demolish the factory. In a judgment issued on 8 April 2009, a UK court dismissed Ardagh“s argument that planning permission cannot be granted retrospectively under EC law and declined to issue a cease operation order against Quinn Glass. The judge said that local planning authorities should serve an enforcement notice to ensure that their powers continue to be available for a development such as that constructed by Quinn Glass. Ardagh Glass has been granted leave to appeal to the judgment. Quinn Glass has made an application to the court for costs.