Council's Carrickmines rezoning was haphazard, says planner

A senior planner has described attempts by county councillors to rezone controversial land at Carrickmines in south Dublin as "haphazard".

Mr Willie Murray, the planning officer at Dublin County Council and then Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council during the 1990s, said he would not accept that the councillors were acting at the desire of planners.

He criticised attempts by councillors to rezone lands owned by the businessman Mr Jim Kennedy, and an adjoining property owned by Mr Brian O'Halloran, Prof Austin Darragh and Mr Gerard Kilcoyne, in 1992.

The motions proposing the rezonings related to individual pieces of land, rather than the overall area.

"We were trying to make an overall plan, using a co-ordinated approach. This was haphazard to say the least," Mr Murray told the tribunal.

Mr Pat Quinn SC, for the tribunal, said the witness had been very helpful to Mr O'Halloran, who had made a number of submissions about the lands to the council.

However, Mr Murray said Mr O'Halloran and his associates had been very persistent people. He was "only glad" to get them out of his office.

Asked about a council map which was given to an architect employed by Mr Kennedy 16 months before it was presented to councillors, Mr Murray said this should not have happened. He knew nothing about the incident, which happened in 1989.

Mr Murray told counsel he did not know who had decided in 1990 that there should be an interchange on the proposed South-Eastern Motorway at Glenamuck Road, which would service Mr Kennedy's land.

This interchange is now at the centre of controversy as it is due to be built on part of the site of the archaeological remains of Carrickmines Castle.

Mr Quinn pointed out that there already was an existing interchange on the Glenamuck Road which serviced nearby lands.

However, the witness replied that Mr Kennedy's lands were much larger. He did not know Mr Kennedy.

Mr Quinn pointed out that at least four interchanges were being planned on a short stretch of the motorway. The road plan proposed would open the lands north and south of the motorway for development.

Asked who had added the interchanges to the plan, Mr Murray said the planners had. Asked who had informed him in 1990 that the line of the motorway had been changed, he said the engineers had.

Mr Murray originally told the tribunal he had not met Mr Frank Dunlop but later discovered a reference in his diary to a meeting with the lobbyist in 1996.

After retiring from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council at the end of March 2001, Mr Murray went to work as chief executive officer of Rathdown Light Rail the following month.

His evidence continues today.