Councillors to discuss getting the county manager to sue himself

Members of Wicklow County Council are set to debate a motion on Monday calling for the county manager to take legal action against himself.

The move is the latest twist in a tussle between council staff and the elected members over planning permission for a pet crematorium at Redcross, near Wicklow town.

Members of the council voted against the crematorium application on the recommendation of the local area councillors, who said there was considerable opposition to the scheme.

The acting county manager, Mr Hubert Fitzpatrick, however, granted planning permission. He said the members, in their deliberations, had considered matters which went beyond proper planning and development.

The members responded with a special meeting to debate the issue and expressed exasperation that the council staff had not refused the permission. Meanwhile, at Redcross, wire ties on bales of hay belonging to the landowner on whose land the crematorium was to be built were cut, amid allegations of bullying and intimidation.

The councillors have now called another special meeting at which a sub-committee has put forward a Section 4 motion instructing the county manager to instruct solicitors "to bring proceedings and seek relief by way of a judicial review to compel the county manager to comply with the direction of the council to refuse planning permission for a crematorium". The motion indicates that the manager should hire Fionnuala Cawkhill and Associates as solicitors in the action.

Fionnuala Cawkhill and Associates was the firm which represented many of the anti-roads protesters who camped at the Glen of the Downs, in their dispute with the county council over a road-widening scheme.

The motion also instructs the county manager to "put appropriate administrative procedures in place so as to ensure that the legal proceedings be brought expeditiously and effectively and make all appropriate documents and facilities available relevant to such proceedings and make necessary financial resources available in this regard".

The motion is signed by a cross-party grouping representing the main political parties and independents on the council.