Construction of Quinn Glass Ltd's giant factory on the former site of a power station at Elton was completed in 2005 – but there is still no planning consent in place, London's High Court heard.
And now, with hundreds of local jobs at stake, trade rivals, Ardagh Glass Ltd, have been battling to persuade Judge David Mole QC that the multi-million-pound plant should be torn down.
The 310,000 tonne-a-year capacity plant, which opened in 2006, is supplied with cullet from sources including glass recycling firm Recresco, which signed a £100 million deal with Irish-based Quinn Glass in August 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Robert McCracken QC, for Ardagh, said the factory's very existence was a violation of both domestic and European law, which demands that planning consent must not be given for such projects without first carrying out a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Dublin-based Ardagh is asking the judge to order the local planning authorities – Chester city council and Ellesmere Port and Neston borough council – to take “enforcement action” against the Quinn Glass factory, requiring its demolition.
Ardagh, which has several plants in the UK, also says it would be against the law for either council to grant retrospective applications for planning permission that were submitted by Quinn Glass in February last year.
Mr McCracken argued Quinn Glass, also based in the Republic of Ireland, was well aware of the risk it took when it built the factory without planning permission and the company should now have to pay the price.
The barrister said that Ardagh was particularly anxious that the four-year time limit for the councils to take enforcement action against the plant was due to expire this year and, if that happens, the factory would become effectively “immune” to planning control and a fait accompli.
However, Vincent Fraser QC, for the councils, said they were “not prepared to allow” the plant to become immune and were keeping the possibility of enforcement action under review.
Although Ardagh says the four-year deadline will pass next month, the councils argue they have until November to decide whether or not to take action against Quinn Glass.
Mr Fraser told the judge the councils are under no legal obligation to take enforcement action to remove the factory and are empowered to “retrospectively regularise” the position by granting Quinn Glass's latest applications, subject to the Secretary of State's authorisation.
Mr Neil King QC, representing Quinn Glass, said the company's planning applications could not be granted anyway, without “special authorisation” from the Secretary of State, and that Ardagh's court challenge is therefore “an exercise in futility” and, in any event, too late.
Supporting the councils' stance, the barrister said that, to force the factory's demolition, would be a “disproportionate” response, costing millions of pounds – along with large numbers of jobs and “causing obvious hardship to those involved”.
Planning permission for a factory on the site was granted in 2003, but Mr McCracken said that was for “a different development” on a substantially smaller scale.
Chester city council later approved “amendments” to that planning consent – allowing construction of the larger factory – but that decision was in July 2004 overturned “by consent” after Ardagh Glass, then known as Rockware Glass Ltd, mounted a court challenge.
Further applications for planning consent by Quinn Glass were in March 2005 “called in” by the Secretary of State (see letsrecycle.com story) who later refused permission, despite accepting that an environmental statement that went with the application was adequate, Mr Fraser told the court.
The QC said the councils' decisions on Quinn Glass's latest planning applications are “imminent” but have been held in abeyance pending the outcome of the High Court hearing.
The case, expected to last at least two days, continues.
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