Builder tells court he won’t be able to build ‘a hen house’ on €6m site

A builder has told the High Court he believes he won’t be able to build “a hen house” on a 140-acre site in Co Wicklow which he bought for €6 million with a view to develop an exclusive golf course. The site’s planning history meant he could not proceed, Eddie O’Dwyer said.

A subsidiary of his Dwyer Nolan building firm is suing the former owner of the land at Newcastle, Co Wicklow, and a company of law searchers, over an alleged failure to inform him, before the purchase, that the property had been subject of planning enforcement notices.

The notices related to illegal dumping of half a million tonnes of builders’ rubble and unauthorised use of a shed for storing light aircraft.

Golf course swap
Mr O'Dwyer (69) said he had planned to do a swap with Kilcoole Golf Club whereby it would be provided with a new home at Newcastle and he could build houses in Kilcoole. He did something similar with Bray Golf Club and made more than €20 million, he said.

He said he could not proceed with his plan for the Newcastle site because it would cost at least €1.5 million to clean it up and a history of planning problems related to the shed’s use.

A Dwyer Nolan subsidiary, Comis Construction, is seeking orders the 2006 sale of the land by former owner Eric Hopkins, a retired airline pilot from Donabate, Co Dublin, be set aside

Alternatively, Comis wants the court to order Mr Hopkins to restore the land to the condition prior to the unauthorised dumping. Comis is seeking damages for alleged breach of duty against Rochford Brady Legal Services, claiming it did not do its job properly when it did planning searches, prior to the purchase, in relation to the land.

It is claimed those searches did not disclose enforcement and warning notices issued against Mr Hopkins in 2000.

The defendants deny the claims.

The court heard that although Newcastle was zoned for agriculture, Mr O’Dwyer believed there would be no problem getting permission for a golf club It was only after the purchase, he learned Mr Hopkins had kept from him that he had been served with enforcement notices by Wicklow County Council, he said.

'Run a mile'
Asked by his counsel James Dwyer what he would have done had he known, he replied: "I would have run a mile."

He believed he would not be allowed “build a hen house”, let alone a golf course, at Newcastle until all the planning issues were sorted.