A Co Down harbour at the centre of long running bad odour claims is being forced to hand over data from board meetings a year after councillors walked away in solidarity with local people.
Warrenpoint Harbour Authority (WHA) has refused to provide minutes in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request citing “commercial sensitivities”, but will now.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has seen the FoI emails as well as the new Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) new findings, released this week.
The original FoI had asked: “I request access to all board meeting minutes from April 2023 to the present date.
“This request (11 July 2025) particularly seeks information relating to the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) operations and associated environmental concerns.”
Environment groups and local residents have raised concerns for the last three years over a perceived stink at the port, they say is linked to waste bales at the harbour to be shipped for Newry recycling company Re-Gen. The bales would then be incinerated in Scandinavian areas.
Despite a request to review its FoI position, the WHA doubled down and refused to disclose the discussions held at its internal board meetings.
This was despite three non-executive roles being provided for elected members of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council on the board.
In July 2025 Sinn Fein and SDLP councillors on the WHA board quit over concerns about foul odours.
In its discovery process the ICO found that the WHA had not been consistent on who was the qualified person to exempt or withhold data.
The ICO states: “Having considered all the circumstances, the Commissioner is not satisfied that the opinion relied upon was reasonable.
It adds: “The Commissioner is not persuaded by WHA’s submissions that all information within the minutes is commercially sensitive or that meaningful extraction and redaction could not be undertaken.
“He therefore considers that non-commercially sensitive information that does not engage any other exemption or exception should be disclosed.”
“The Commissioner considers it particularly significant that the information relates to environmental concerns which were the subject of extensive public discussion, community complaint and regulatory attention.
“The Commissioner is not satisfied that WHA may withhold non-commercial environmental information simply because it appears in minutes that also contain commercially sensitive information.
“Where environmental information concerning RDF operations is reasonably capable of separation from commercially sensitive material, it must be disclosed.”
