Wonderful Barn scheme approved

Planning permission has been granted for a large housing development beside an 18th century folly in Co Kildare, which in 2006 was listed as among the world's 100 most endangered monuments.

David Daly's Albany Homes has been given the all clear by An Bord Pleanála to build 466 houses on lands at Barnhall in Leixlip on the grounds of the Wonderful Barn - a stone grain store dating from 1743.

The 39-acre site is located 1km from Leixlip village and around 100 metres from the north side of the M4.

The seven-storey grain store was built on part of the Castletown Estate as a Famine Relief project.

In 2006 the folly, which is based on the design of an Indian rice store, was placed on the New York-based World Monument Fund's crisis list because the site was threatened by urban encroachment and had suffered from years of "poor maintenance and inappropriate additions".

In 2005 Kildare County Council granted permission for the Albany scheme.

This was appealed to the planning board.

Going against the advisc of its own planning inspector, the planning board has now granted permission for the development.

In his report, the inspector agreed with the local authority that the land could be developed without damaging the architectural heritage of the area. A revised entrance, he said, helps ensure that the protected structure remains the focus of its setting while the development has little or no impact on the visual relationship between the Wonderful Barn and Castletown House.

Nonetheless, the inspector recommended a refusal of planning permission on the grounds that the scheme fails to integrate properly with adjoining housing areas and that there is inadequate provision of "access to the broad range of facilities in the town".

Serious problems with the sewerage network serving the area were also cited as a reason for refusal by the inspector.

But the board granted planning permission, subject to 30 conditions.

Albany Homes recently handed over 52 acres of parkland, the Wonderful Barn and the adjoining Barnhall House to Kildare County Council, which is working with the Irish Landmark Trust on a conservation strategy

A landscaping plan for the site includes a bank of trees to screen the new estate from the Wonderful Barn complex.

Among objectors to the scheme was An Taisce which said that the structure was one of "the most striking and unusual" of its kind in Ireland.

Work is expected to begin on site in September, according to Willie Coonan of Coonan Real Estate Alliance, which will be marketing the residential scheme.