Major amenity chance for Killucan stalled

Pat Whelehan is just one of generations of family before him that quarried on his land at Derrymore, Killucan. Once the sand ran out, Pat had planned on opening a lake of approximately 15 acres, as an amenity for the area. However two months ago, his plans were brought to a halt when Westmeath County Council refused him permission to see out his dream.Pat has appealed to An Bord Pleanala to extend permission for the extraction of sand and gravel, re-open the entrance at Derrymore and retain the pond/lake and residential accommodation.'(Westmeath County Council) refused me planning about two months ago,' says Pat, 'so it took me a month to get the appeal ready for An Bord Pleanála. I"m stopped work six months now over silly technicalities and I have to wait another five months for An Bord Pleanála to get back to me with a decision.'Pat says he is losing money by the day, with the latest refusal costing hime something in the region of €100,000. He is living with his five children in a converted shed after his two-storey family home house was deemed unstable and therefore unsafe to live in. He is also seeking retention of this converted home but has been refused permission.The converted shed is situated on an island on the lake, along with a boathouse and beach.Pat, who has planted some 20,000 trees around the perimeter of the lake, has big plans for a lake amenity:'It wasn"t all sand and gravel here. This area where we are standing now was left because it was silt and "lack" which is a water soil, so I"m taking that up and I"m going to plant aquatic plants right around the perimeter of the lake to provide a food chain for the 1000 rainbow trout I have put in the lake,' he says.Pat also plans to put in bream and carp so there will be an amenity for angling and coarse fishing, plus all facilities laid on at Derrymore. A kilometre-long ring road surrounds the entire lake to allow for access for fishing.Speaking about the sand and gravel industry, Pat says: 'My sand is supplied from under the water which makes it a very clean operation. There is no dust and dirt because it was all washed in from the glaciers, so we extract it, run it through the machines and sell it off.''Starting off, we took the soil off the top of the land and pushed a 30ft bank of soil to the outer boundaries and planted it up with 20,000 trees including green and red oaks, copper and green beech, Spanish chesnuts, horse chesnuts, and for the winter I planted walnuts, laurels, hollies and pines. This all creates a fly food chain for the trout and birds. All the wild fowl are coming in now. I"m hoping there is a market for this out there, and if there is I"m hoping to jumpstart some sort of activity. There is massive potential sitting here and untapped.'Pat also had an environmental impact study carried out by ENVIROCO, which works with sand and gravel pits and quarries, assisting them with environmental improvements and management. They found that the sand and gravel pit at Derrymore 'is one of the most proactive in relation to environmental improvements and active reinstatement'.'Pat"s continued reinvestment into the Derrymore site, through encouragement of increased biodiversity and good overall environmental health of his site....is both proactive and actively constructive in increasing the environmental wellbeing of his site and gravel pit and its surrounding environment,' it said.'The annoying part of it,' Pat continues, 'is I haven"t seen one planner down here after several requests through my architect and through the county councillors.'Pat and his fathers before him have been in the business since the 1800s. The Whelehan name has been in Derrymore for generations. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather used to dig oxide of iron, also known as mather ore which was used as a filter by gas companies years ago.Pat got his first planning permission in 1992 for a sand and gravel pit in Derrymore and, initially, leased it out. Pat, who used to be a farmer, later decided to get into the quarrying business himself, and received planning permission again in 2003, engineering and designing the whole project himself, and purchasing all of the equipment.His plan eventually was to build a lake in Derrymore, with the plan to open it in the future as an amenity for boating, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing and sailing.ExpertPat invited an expert from Wind and Wave to see if his idea would be viable and found that the lake was ample size for any water sport, with nothing like in it in comparison, either in the north or south of Ireland.Pat had envisaged a school or adventure centre, that would be run in conjunction with the fishing, and overseen by him and his children, but now that the work has been stopped, he is losing money by the day:'I carried out the development of the lake grant free, by ploughing back all profits from the sand and gravel operation into it. I even contributed approximately €137,000 towards upgrading the roads around the area,' says Pat.'I"m burnt out now at this stage. I"m having to sell my machines off at half the price just to keep going in the hope that I will get back in six months" time to finish off what I started. Hopefully sense will prevail because I can see the overall picture.'They knocked me on environmental grounds, mentioning the otter, the kingfisher and the Red Hemp Nettle. It is a Special Area of Conservation for the River Boyne and Blackwater, but I think it is really sad that the project is 80 per cent finished.'The way it has gone is that my clients are gone, my contracts are gone, half my machines are gone, and my workforce is gone. There is no sale for sand and the way things are looking now, this project could be parked up for years, even if I got approval because I might not have the funds to restart it again.'The kids and I were really excited about starting this up as an amenity. They would love being involved in the running of it and they are mad into surfing and watersports.'I"m terribly disappointed with the Council because they have shown me no encouragement whatsoever. This is chance for a good out-doors amenity to come to the area,' he finished.The case is due to be decided by An Bord Pleanala on February 11 in 2009.