Remember the furore when Pippa Hackett shared a video on social media of a farmer burning piles of bushes?

She described it as “not acceptable” on the day in question. The farmer involved has come forward since and stated that he was operating within the law, as permission had been obtained for a “controlled burn” from Offaly County Council.

I don’t want to revisit the rights and wrongs of that case, but it serves as a neat entry (and entrée) for the subject matter at hand.

Alternative

Imagine if someone came up with an alternative to burning bushes and other decayed vegetation. If instead, it was composted and recycled as a nutrient for the land, in itself replacing chemical fertiliser.

That would be a game changer, wouldn’t it? Such a development would surely get the enthusiastic support of politicians, particularly from the Green Party. Wouldn’t it?

Apparently not. Thirty kilometres down the road from Mount Lucas, where Pippa filmed the burning bushes, you will find Larch Hill Farm.

It’s a tillage farm outside Monasterevin run by Pat Cleary with his sons Darragh and Gavin. And they are composting green waste and applying it to feed their land and the crops it grows.

And yet they have been locked in a planning wrangle that has lasted over a decade, and has been the subject of a judicial review, brought by the Clearys at considerable expense.

And it all centres around whether a small collection tank and the channels that service it required planning permission or not.

The “other side” in this saga is not Kildare County Council, which granted a permit for the facility and twice renewed it. It’s An Bord Pleanála.

Internal investigation

You may have seen Prime Time on Thursday evening (26 May). The final feature was about the deepening concerns over systems failures within An Bord Pleanála.

Already, Paul Hyde, the deputy chair of An Bord Pleanála, has stepped aside while an investigation into matters relating to cases involving him takes place.

However, the information relayed by Prime Time suggests there may be issues around structures and protocols and the application of best practice.

Larch Hill Farm's composting enterprise.

It’s a small little country, and we all know each other. That makes it harder to prevent people in prominent positions within public life having personal or former professional links that are potentially compromising.

Good systems

It also makes it all the more important that we strive very hard to put really good systems in place to guard against the compromising of high standards.

Even that’s not enough, the appearance of potential conflict of interest can damage public confidence in people and institutions.

When the country was on its knees, we brought an outsider, Matthew Elderfield, in as financial regulator.

That move seemed to give the position much-needed credibility when our international banking and business reputation was in tatters.

An Bord Pleanála says it “has established an internal team of senior management personnel to examine a number of decided cases where public commentary has raised issues and concerns around the procedures and processes applied in those cases”.

It will be interesting to see if the Larch Hill Farm planning saga is included in these deliberations.

Paul Hyde was, to my knowledge, not involved in this particular issue, but it certainly ticks every box contained within the criteria created by An Bord Pleanála.

Small pond

I know Pat Cleary for a variety of reasons; our paths have crossed a number of times. Irish farming is quite a small pond on the little damp rock we all share.

I first got to know him as a founder member of Tillage Ireland, a farmer representative group that foundered quite quickly, but was a precursor of what is now the Irish Grain Growers.

He was one of the half-dozen organisers/directors of Beet Ireland, which tried to revitalise beet processing in Ireland. The attempt failed but it wasn’t for the want of trying.

I was also aware of Pat as a member of Fine Gael’s agriculture group from its formation until its recent reincarnation.

Pat claims to have been one of the people who delivered the tillage TAMS. I know that there is some truth in this, for my sources tell me that through the Fine Gael ag committee he pushed the agenda very hard for the need to support capital investment in what is a capital-heavy enterprise.

So it’s fair to say that Pat Cleary is a trier and an innovator. He can also be pretty stubborn and direct and perhaps sometimes can rub people up the wrong way.

The original inspection by An Bord Pleanála of Pat’s yard was triggered by an objection lodged by neighbours.

Pat has long held that the ease with which an objection can be mounted by practically anybody is a problem within our planning system.

He also holds that the photographs purporting to be from his farm are from another site, but that he never got an opportunity to openly contest this evidence.

Central issue

I’ll be honest, I’ve spent some hours looking at this one case and the associated files. I’m still unclear on some of the details, and some of the people involved. But I do know this. The central issue that caused An Bord Pleanála to revoke his permit, the issue of planning for the small collection tank, is a relatively trivial one.

It beggars belief that bureaucracy could trump what seems to be the public good

It surely could have been resolved without all that has happened since.

Pat Cleary has always held that planning was not required for the tank. And he should be well placed to assess this, for he is a qualified planner himself, someone who had worked in that profession for many years.

Kildare County Council seemed to agree with that assessment for a number of years, renewing his original permit twice.

But even if Pat Cleary was wrong and An Bord Pleanála was correct, is that reason enough for the body to try to shut down such an environmentally positive project?

It beggars belief that bureaucracy could trump what seems to be the public good.

Green waste composting continues to this day at Larch Hill Farm, under permit from Kildare County Council, with bi-monthly inspections taking place.

The composter on Larch Hill Farm.

However, the underlying planning issues rumble on, unresolved, and casting a shadow over the investment and commitment made by the Cleary family.

Maybe there is something I am missing in the whole saga. If I was talked through it by someone from An Bord Pleanála, perhaps I would see it very differently.

However, the case as I have observed it seems to warrant inclusion in the internal review being conducted by An Bord Pleanála.

And maybe there will be a future where composting is standard practice in rural Ireland, with farmyards taking in garden waste as well as hedgerow prunings.

On this Pat Cleary, Pippa Hackett, and maybe even An Bord Pleanála can all agree.

Read more

Farmer locked in battle with Council

Letter: Kildare planning permission problems

Landmark planning judgement may have has implications for Kildare family

Using compost proves a success in Co Kildare