Cloghan Point: Oil terminal expansion successfully challenged

A decision to approve the multi-million pound expansion of an oil terminal on the shores of Belfast Lough is to be quashed, the High Court in Belfast has heard.

Approval for expanding the Cloghan Point facility was granted by Mid and East Antrim Council in April 2024, but a residents group in Whitehead objected to the plans and launched a legal challenge over the plans.

Members of the Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal (SWOT) have declared themselves “fully vindicated” on Monday after it emerged the case against the council was no longer being contested.

The court decision on Monday now means the council must reconsider the expansion plans.

Cloghan Point was built in the 1970s to serve Ballylumford and Kilroot power stations which it did for several years.

But recently it has been used to store part of the Republic of Ireland’s strategic reserve of diesel and gas oil.

A company had applied to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council for planning permission to expand the site.

Despite objections from local residents, the project was recommended for approval by the planning committee.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) had confirmed by letter that it did not believe the project had sufficient impact for it to be called in.

The legal action, backed by the Public Interest Litigation Support group, sought to have the council’s decision to grant planning permission quashed and declared unlawful.

In court on Monday it emerged that the case against the local authority was no longer being contested.

Mr Justice McAlinden confirmed: “There is an order by consent, quashing the planning approval in that application.”

A separate challenge against the department for failing to call-in the expansion project under powers within the Planning Act (NI) was adjourned generally.

Amid claims that part of the case was now academic, the campaign group could potentially revive those proceedings after the development proposal is reconsidered.

Outside court following the court decision, Whitehead resident Clodagh Miskelly, who took the judicial review on behalf of the SWOT group, said she was “delighted” and felt “vindicated”.

“This is what we have been campaigning for all along,” she said.

Ms Miskelly claimed the facilities at Cloghan Point will have a wider impact on Belfast Lough and the surrounding ecosystem.

“This is fossil fuel infrastructure in the middle of a climate crisis, it’s going to impact on net-zero targets which we are already lagging behind,” she said.