Archived press release

Government's 'significant compromise' on environmental protection revealed

28 February 2006

Environmental campaigners were today able to reveal that Government has wilfully allowed damage to the environment by approving new housing in areas with inadequate sewage treatment. In Friends of the Earth's Judicial Review of Government planning policy [1], the green group obtained a document which discussed a series of options, ranging from providing some protection from sewage pollution, to providing none [2]. Prior to this court case, Government had refused to release this 'options document' to Friends of the Earth.

In the document, the then Environment Minister, Dermot Nesbitt says:

"I am willing to consider options at the lower end of environmental protection. But only on the basis that the Executive notes and accepts that this involves a significant compromise of environmental protection in favour of physical development."

On the option chosen by the Executive, option 4, Mr Nesbitt says:

"Option 4 is likely to entail permitting developments to occur which will exacerbate non-compliance [with European law] and/or actual and potential pollution problems in areas where pollution is already deemed by EHS to have High and Medium impact."

John Woods, Northern Ireland Director of Friends of the Earth said:

"Now we know why Government has been trying to keep this document a secret for the past three years. It reveals a callous disregard for the environment by not just Dermot Nesbitt and Peter Robinson, but also a succession of Ministers and senior DOE and DRD civil servants who have stuck to this morally bankrupt policy."

Mr Woods continued:

"This evidence will now be used in the upcoming European Court case [3] and will drive a coach and horses through the Government's defence. It is difficult to imagine a more irresponsible approach to the environment, public health and the public purse for it now seems inevitable that Northern Ireland will be heavily fined for its disregard for European law."

Notes

[1] (back) Friends of the Earth took a Judicial Review of the Water Service policy of connecting new developments to the mains sewerage in the 57 'hotspot' areas with overloaded, inadequate or non-existent sewage treatment. The court case ended today and the judge will make a ruling in due course.

[2] (back) A copy of this document is available from Friends of the Earth.

[3] In 2003 Friends of the Earth made a complaint to the European Commission on Northern Ireland's non-compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. The case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland
7 Donegall Street Place
BELFAST
BT1 2FN
Tel: 028 9023 3488
Fax: 028 9024 7556
Email: foe-ni@foe.co.uk.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust