Appeals against one-off houses

An Taisce last year recorded a 90 per cent success rate in appealing decisions to An Bord Pleanála against one-off housing developments throughout the State.

New figures show that in 2002, the organisation appealed 134 decisions made by local authorities granting planning permission to single dwellings.

The largest number of appeals lodged were against decisions made by Kildare County Council, which accounted for 28 per cent of the total.

Some 12 appeals each were lodged in Kerry, Leitrim and Mayo, while An Taisce lodged 15 appeals against decisions by Cavan County Council.

In Donegal, An Taisce lodged 11 appeals against one-off housing decisions last year, and 10 in Co Cork.

Ironically, in Co Galway - which is home to one of An Taisce's staunchest critics, the Minister for Rural and Community Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív - no appeals were lodged last year.

The figures show that out of the 101 decisions to date made by Bord Pleanála on the 134 An Taisce appeals, only four planning authority decisions were upheld, while seven were declared invalid.

The remainder of the applications failed either through the appeals board upholding An Taisce's appeals, or the applicant withdrawing the application.

An Taisce's Heritage Officer, Mr Ian Lumley, yesterday accused Kildare County Council of flagrantly breaching the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin area and its own County Development Plan in continuing to grant planning for one-off housing in areas of the county where it should not.

The charge was rejected by a spokesman for Kildare County Council.

Mr Lumley said: "All the appeals lodged by An Taisce relating to decisions on single houses by Kildare County Council were upheld by the appeals board or withdrawn by the applicant last year.

"Why Kildare County Council persists in granting planning for one-off housing in these areas, I don't know. What is the point of the strategic planning guidelines if they are being continually ignored?"

The number of appeals lodged by An Taisce is more than seven times the number of appeals lodged last year against one-off housing by Dúchas, the Heritage Service.

Dúchas, which has also come under attack from rural-based organisations over its role in planning, lodged 19 appeals, seven in Roscommon and two each in Clare, Cavan, Leitrim and Sligo.

Mr Lumley said such bodies as Dúchas should be more pro-active in the planning area.

Some 18,000 one-off houses are granted planning permission each year.