Wicklow County Council has sought independent legal advice about a meeting which adopted a series of controversial amendments to its county development plan in July.
At a heated meeting yesterday, councillors unanimously agreed to seek the advice after various members questioned the legality of the previous meeting, at which a series of controversial rezoning decisions were made.
The concerns centred on the fact that the 18-hour meeting on July 12th dragged on into the early hours of July 13th. The legal deadline under planning legislation for amendments was July 12th.
At the July meeting, councillors voted in favour of 17 rezoning motions against the advice of planners.
These included the rezoning of a 172-acre site near Ashford for a film studio, after councillors were informed by architects for the landowners that Ardmore Studios were planning to relocate from their Bray base. This was subsequently denied by Ardmore Studios.
Other controversial rezonings included a quarry in Ashford and a timber shed factory near Newcastle, which currently have no planning permission, and a medical step-down facility and nursing home, also near Newcastle, close to a nature reserve.
Yesterday the county manager, Mr Eddie Sheehy, maintained that legal advice on the day of the meeting that it could proceed past midnight was correct, but that the council would nevertheless seek legal advice to clarify the issue.
Various councillors said, however, that the length of the meeting and the manner in which some of the business was rushed through created serious questions over the plan. These included Cllr Pat Vance of Fianna Fáil, who said he had left the meeting at midnight, because he "felt we were going to be leaving ourselves open to legal challenge".
Tempers were frayed during yesterday's meeting as some councillors traded insults and made accusations against each other, while the council chairman, Mr John Byrne of Labour, at one stage threatened to abandon proceedings because of shouting by councillors.
During yesterday's debate, two councillors, Ms Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party and Mr Tommy Cullen, an Independent, attempted unsuccessfully to have the development plan process suspended and to seek an independent inquiry into the July meeting.
Ms De Burca claimed there had been a series of "planning irregularities" which could make the current phase of the development plan invalid.
She said these included the meeting going on into July 13th and the failure to hold a debate on many of the rezoning motions. She also said that fellow councillor Mr Fachtna Whittle failed to declare a conflict of interest in relation to a site which he proposed for rezoning, having previously acted as a solicitor in relation to a planning issue on the same site.
Rejecting the accusation, Mr Whittle, of Fianna Fáil, said he did "not stand to make one single penny" from the rezoning proposal, and defended his involvement in a number of other controversial rezonings as bringing employment to the area.
Meanwhile a decision by the council to remove stated rights of way and walking paths from the development plan was also criticised during the meeting by a group representing walking organisations.
Mr Roger Garland of Keep Ireland Open said the list was removed because of a campaign by members of the IFA.
Mr Garland's comments were heavily criticised by a number of councillors, who also said that the rights of way issue would be considered by a special committee. Cllr Andrew Doyle of Fine Gael, who is a farmer and IFA member, said that Mr Garland was "creating problems where problems never existed before", and that farmers usually enjoyed a good relationship with walkers.