Council move against farmers selling one-off housing criticised

Clare County Council was yesterday accused of seeking to criminalise farmers for selling on one-off houses in rural areas.

The charge was made by a rural-rights campaigner, Mr Jim Connolly, after it emerged that the council had initiated enforcement proceedings against land-owners who have put up for sale one-off houses in rural parts of the county.

The council instituted the proceedings after the land-owners secured planning permission by informing the local authority in writing that the houses were for their own occupation.

Instead, the council has discovered that the land-owners are flouting conditions of their planning permission by putting the houses up for sale.

If land-owners do not comply with the enforcement proceedings, they are liable to a fine of up to €1,905 on summary conviction in the District Court and to higher penalties in the Circuit Court.

The owner-occupancy clause has been adopted by a number of planning authorities to control the proliferation of one-off housing and has come under fire from rural-based organisations.

In a statement, the council's director for planning, Mr Ger Dollard, said the local authority was concerned about the bona fides of some planning applications, "as it has come to light that houses granted on the basis of a strict occupancy condition are being offered for sale on the open market".

Confirming the council had initiated enforcement proceedings in a number of cases, Mr Dollard said: "It is quite clear that the use of such owner-occupancy clauses will require to be more stringently applied and other mechanisms sought to ensure that houses granted for local persons are used for their intended purpose."

Mr Dollard warned councillors that the flexibility in dealing with people with a genuine housing requirement in the countryside had been impaired by the "non-bona fides" of some applications.

However, the founder of Rural Resettlement Ireland, Mr Jim Connolly, said yesterday that the enforcement proceedings initiated by the council were trying to criminalise farmers and land-owners.

Mr Connolly, who is also secretary of the Irish Rural Dwellers' Association (IRDA), added: "It is a legitimate form of income for farmers to sell off sites and houses in order to remain on the land.

"I am not advocating a free-for-all, but there needs to be a balance between the rights of farmers and the common good."

However, the council's move was welcomed by An Taisce's heritage officer, Mr Ian Lumley, who said: "This practice of misrepresentation undermines the integrity of the planning system, and it is important that the system's integrity be maintained because it affects the genuine cases."