Delay in officially announcing permission for Derry plant may prevent legal challenge

The North’s Department of the Environment has ordered an internal investigation into why people were not informed of planning approval for a major waste processing plant near Derry.
Approval for the 500,000 pounds development at Strathfoyle was granted in September, 2011. At that point, the decision should have been advertised in the local press, but that did not happen until earlier this year.
Objectors say that by time the advert did appear, the deadline for a legal challenge had passed.
The BBC are reporting today that the top civil servant at the Department of the Environment has now ordered an inquiry to find out what went wrong.
The DoE say that failing to notify the public in time was an “administrative oversight” which has “no bearing on the original decision to grant the approval”.