Planning appeal against Clare restaurant succeeds

One of Co Clare's most popular restaurants faces demolition following a successful objection lodged against the enterprise by competitors.

Yesterday, Bord Pleanála refused planning permission to Sibylle and Wolfgang Dietl to retain their Holywell restaurant near the Burren, outside Ballyvaughan. The restaurant employs 20 people and about €500,000 has been invested in the project.

Over the past two summers the restaurant, which serves homemade Italian food, has enjoyed good custom.

The Dietls built their Italian restaurant without planning permission but were successful in securing retrospective planning permission from Clare County Council last April.

That decision was appealed to Bord Pleanála by competitors Ms Helen Laffan and Mr Barry Richards of Trí na Chéile restaurant in Ballyvaughan.

Since the couple lodged their appeal against the council's decision, they have sold on their Ballyvaughan restaurant business. But the appeals board yesterday upheld their appeal on several grounds.

In its order, the board ruled that the Holywell restaurant "would create an undesirable precedent for further commercial development in the Burren countryside".

The board also ruled that the proposal would constitute an intrusive development that would seriously injure the visual amenities and natural integrity of the area and would put unwarranted significant additional pressure on its vulnerable water resources.

The board also ruled that retaining the restaurant would endanger public safety by generating significant additional traffic movements on the narrow and unlit local road network.

The decision does not affect the language school that the Dietls operate at the site, but the restaurant is now an unauthorised development.

It is likely to prompt a fresh initiative from the council's enforcement unit to have the restaurant shut and the building demolished.

Last September, the council's environment section shut the restaurant due to the risk its sewage system posed to the water supply in Ballyvaughan.

After investing in an upgraded sewage system, the restaurant opened shortly after and in response to operating the restaurant without planning permission, the council brought a prosecution.

At Lisdoonvarna District Court last December, the judge told the Dietls they faced a month in jail if they operated their restaurant without planning permission during the next two years. They were also ordered to pay €3,000 between fines and costs arising from the case.

The couple then lodged the plans to retain the restaurant and appealed the district court ruling to Ennis Circuit Court.

That case is due to be heard next month after being adjourned a number of times to await the outcome of the Bord Pleanála decision.

In their appeal to Bord Pleanála, Mr Richards and Ms Laffan pointed out that "there is a history of non-compliance with planning restrictions on the site and a history of unauthorised developments on the site".

Ms Laffan declined to comment on the decision yesterday.

Ms Dietl said she would not be commenting on until she and Mr Dietl had properly studied the decision.