Less Roadstone, More Yellowstone….?

Albert at Calary 6MAY17

f not quite David and Goliath, Albert Kerr’s mission to save the Calary Lake quarry feels pretty lobsided.

Here’s a 75-year-old diver going into battle with Ireland’s largest company – namely, building materials group CRH.

At the centre of it all is a flooded quarry that has become something of a natural beauty, a clear water lake that spans 12 acres, and is 28 metres deep.

It’s CRH’s subsidiary, Roadstone, who plan on filling the quarry with 3.2 million tonnes of unwanted soil, stone and construction waste. Their planning application was filed in May 2016, and the company has said the project would take 10 to 12 years to complete, with 12 heavy-goods vehicles coming in and out of the site per hour on every day bar Sunday and bank holidays.

The only trouble is, they have a septuagenarian contrarian in their shoe. Albert Kerr has appealed that decision to An Bord Pleanála, arguing in his submission that this ‘scenic lake located at the side of the beautiful Sugar Loaf mountain‘ has ‘the potential to become an ideal all-year-round public recreational facility‘. Activities such as scuba diving, kayaking, abseiling and wind surfing, reckons Kerr, would find an ideal home in Calary Lake.

It’s understandable that Roadstone need to get their rocks off, but they have an even bigger quarry lying empty up at Ballyhorsey, said to be six times bigger than Calary.

With the An Bord Pleanála case due to be decided in August, we caught up with Albert early this morning at the blocked entrance to that lake, to find out more. You can follow the Calary Lake campaign on Facebook here.