A controversial decision to approve the multi-million pound expansion of an oil terminal on the shores of Belfast Lough is to be quashed, a High Court judge has confirmed.
Mr Justice McAlinden granted the order by consent in a legal action mounted by residents in Whitehead, Co Antrim.
Jubilant campaigners declared themselves fully vindicated in challenging the planning permission for the proposed redevelopment of Cloghan Point as a major fossil fuel import and distribution centre.
The outcome means Mid and East Antrim Borough Council must now reconsider the expansion plans opposed by local residents and environmental organisations.
Built in the 1970s to serve Ballylumford and Kilroot Power Stations, the tanks at Cloghan Point are currently being used to store oil reserves for the Republic of Ireland.
Members of the Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal (SWOT) community group issued judicial review proceedings after the Council gave the green light to the project in April this year.
By that stage the Department for Infrastructure had confirmed by letter that it did not believe the planning application had sufficient regional impact to call it in for further scrutiny.
Backed by the Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) group, campaigners argued that the Council acted unlawfully by failing to hold another pre-determination hearing.
In court today 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 Whitehead resident Clodagh Miskelly, who took the judicial review on behalf of the SWOT group, declared: “We are delighted and vindicated.
“This is what we have been campaigning for all along.”
Ms Miskelly claimed the facilities at Cloghan Point will have a wider impact on Belfast Lough and the surrounding ecosystem.
She insisted: “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.”
A solicitor who represented the campaign group described the legal challenge as “a true ‘David and Goliath’ situation”.
Maria McCloskey, director of PILS, said: “We all want to have confidence that major environmental planning decisions are made properly.
“In the face of the significant resources of the council and a major fossil fuel company, SWOT took on this complex legal challenge to protect the natural environment that we all enjoy.”
She added: “This is a public interest victory of seismic proportions.”