Respond, a voluntary housing agency, has Bord Pleanala permission for the building of three houses for travelling families in Ballina, Co Mayo. Objections to the scheme were heard by the planning authority last month from Dr Aubrey de Vere Bourke and his son, Adrian, described as the beneficial owners of the half-acre site at Killala Road. Dr Bourke is father of the former president, Mrs Mary Robinson. The Kilmore Residents' Association was also named as an appellant.
The July hearing was told that in July 1972 the land was designated to Mayo County Council for road-widening and there was no lawful authority to enter the site other than for that purpose. The residents' association maintained that an original proposal had been altered, part of the site was zoned for community facilities, a nearby stream had insufficient capacity to take surface water and the area contained historical monuments.
Yesterday An Bord Pleanala granted permission subject to 10 conditions mainly in the interests of visual amenity, that an open space be provided for the occupants and that the archaeological heritage of the site be preserved.