A controversial housing development in Cork looks likely to become a test case for the Planning and Development Act, 2001, writes Mary Leland, in Cork
A proposed scheme of 124 houses at Mount Rivers, Blackrock, was refused permission late last year by the city council's planning department on comprehensive grounds which included that it was potentially a "substandard development".
In a letter dated Thursday last An Taisce has advised the housing officer for Cork City Council that the scheme should be withdrawn, as any attempt to approve it would be a contrivance "to circumvent the decision of the council's own planning department and improperly to deprive access by prescribed bodies and concerned local residents of entitlement to appeal to An Bord Pleanála."
However, earlier the Cork city manager, Mr Joe Gavin, issued a notice under Part 8 of Article 81 of the planning regulations advertising the intention of the local authority to pursue a very similar scheme for the same site in a partnership arrangement between Cork City Council and Bowen Construction Ltd, the company involved in the failed application.
Use of this provision means the usual planning process is bypassed, and there is no right of appeal to An Bord Pleanála. Instead, written submissions and observations, dealing with "the proper planning and sustainable development of the area in which the proposed development will be situated", may be made to the housing department.
These are included in a report presented to the city councillors by the manager. The vote of the council has to be taken within six weeks of the submission of the report, and that decision cannot be appealed.
Although this procedure has been criticised by An Taisce - which must be notified of its use - as an inappropriate use of Article 81, it is defended by Mr Gavin as giving the electorate a stronger involvement in planning.
"It is a totally open process in that the public is able to make submissions on the proposal, and then the decision rests with the councillors whom the public has elected," he said.
An Taisce is also worried that the use of Part 8 raises serious concerns about the possibility that a local authority could override the advice of its own planning office. Mr Ian Lumley said An Taisce would be horrified if this were to set a new trend for local authorities.
However, Mr Gavin said not only was this use of Part 8 appropriate and prescribed under the new regulations, but that Cork City Council was now using the new clause for several other proposals.
He had fully supported the decision of the planning department to refuse permission to the earlier application by Bowen Construction and architects O'Riordan Staehli. "There were very strong reasons for refusal, but these have all been addressed in the revised application, to which the housing department has applied the new regulations."
If An Taisce was implying that a city manager could override the advice of his own planners, this was true, but it was not what was happening in this case, which was a totally open process.
The 7.34-acre site on the Castle Road includes Mount Rivers House, a protected structure, and is also adjacent to several other listed buildings including Blackrock Castle, soon to be restored by the city council.
Drawings of the plans can be seen at the city planning offices, but the fact that the supporting architectural, engineering, traffic and landscape reports (all, apart from the architect's report, dated with reference to the earlier application) are kept in offices in a different building severely restricted the public's right to inspect the proposed development before the deadline of Thursday last.
Cork City Council is likely to face a local challenge to the Castle Road scheme on a number of grounds.