More than a third of appeals to An Bord Pleanála by third-party objectors were declared invalid as a result of restrictions imposed by the 2000 Planning Act, it was revealed yesterday.
Mr John O'Connor, the board's chairman, confirmed the number of appeals declared invalid had risen from nine per cent to 35 per cent because of new rules requiring objectors to produce evidence that they had made submissions to the relevant local authority.
He also reported that more than 40 applications for leave to appeal had been received from third parties who had not complied with this requirement.
However, because of the narrow grounds provided in the Act, only three of these were granted by the board.
Speaking at the launch of An Bord Pleanála's annual report for 2001, Mr O'Connor said there was some evidence that the new system was "settling down" because there had been an increase in the number of appeals last month compared to the previous quarter.
Mr Ian Lumley, heritage officer of An Taisce, complained that some local authorities were still failing to supply objectors with receipts for their submissions, thereby invalidating their appeals. There were also undue delays in publishing lists of planning applications. In some cases, the lists were not issued until the fifth week after an application was lodged, he said. As a result, people who might have objected could no longer do so because it was "too late" under the terms of the Act.
Neither could they lodge a valid appeal.
Mr O'Connor said An Bord Pleanála had contacted the Department of the Environment about the receipts issue and the Department had sent a circular to the local authorities reminding them of their responsibilities in this regard.
Third-party objectors normally account for 42 per cent of all appeals made to the board. In 2001, 46 per cent of the decisions they appealed were overturned, 53 per cent amended and only one per cent confirmed.
The reversal rates for decisions made by local authorities also varies widely, from just 14 per cent for Limerick City Council to 63 per cent for Leitrim County Council. Of Leitrim's 39 decisions appealed to An Bord Pleanála in 2001, only 18.5 per cent were confirmed.
Mr O'Connor said the board was now delivering much faster decisions on planning appeals. This was due to 21 per cent increase in its output allied to a 14 per cent reduction in the intake of cases, as a result of the economic slowdown.
The volume of appeal cases on hand at the end of last month dropped to 1,440, representing a reduction of 50 per cent on 2001. The backlog had been eliminated and the board was able to meet its statutory target of giving decisions within 18 weeks in most cases.
Mr O'Connor said the board would deal with a record 6,000 appeals this year and the vast majority of recent and future appeals would be determined within 18 weeks.
He pointed out that some of the delays in processing appeals were due to inadequacies in the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) required for particular schemes.
Mr O'Connor described recent newspaper reports suggesting that An Bord Pleanála was not supportive of higher residential densities as "completely wrong". What it was dubious about was "packing in a large number of small boxes" on restricted development sites.
Although the board was convinced that higher densities were required for sustainable development in urban areas, the chairman said it also had a responsibility to ensure that higher density schemes "do not come at an unacceptable cost" in terms of design quality.
Mr Ciarán Ryan, of the Irish Home Builders' Association, said he wanted to put it on record that An Bord Pleanála was now "getting it right" in terms of "striking the right balance" on development.
