Roads authority appealed 18 one-off homes in Clare

The National Roads Authority (NRA) lodged 18 appeals last year against decisions made by county councils to grant permission for one-off homes across the country. This compared to four appeals in 2004.

It is only two years since the NRA lodged its first appeal against a one-off home.

The figures issued yesterday show that almost one-third of the appeals were made along national routes in the west Clare area.

Last year, the NRA and Clare County Council clashed over the council easing restrictions in its new county development plan on building one-off homes on national routes.

The statistics show that Clare and Mayo accounted for the highest number of appeals with six each.

An Bord Pleanála has made 10 rulings to date on the appeals, and found in favour of the authority on nine occasions.

Independent Clare councillor Christy Curtin said yesterday: "The number of appeals lodged against one-off homes in west Clare shows that the area is receiving a disproportionate amount of appeals from the NRA and it is an indication that the NRA has some problem with the council.

"It is unfair to the people of the area and the NRA must come to the council to explain their policy because this is creating real hardship for the people on the ground."

A spokesman for An Taisce said: "By not complying with national policy, does Clare County Council believe that it is fine that young children are brought up in homes with a 100km speed limit on their doorsteps?

"The figures do reflect that there are problems in Clare and Mayo in the councils' policies permitting one-off homes on national routes. The hostility to the NRA by Clare councillors appears to be based upon their misguided belief that you can build anything anywhere on a national route."

NRA's director for communications Seán O'Neill said its concerns relate to the 5,430km of national routes in Ireland - 6 per cent of the total length of public roads at 94,580km. "We are only talking about 6 per cent of public roads, but this 6 per cent is very important as it carries 40 per cent of the country's traffic.

On the road safety aspect, Mr O'Neill said: "The NRA's recently published Road Collision Facts Report found that 51 per cent of car accidents occurred at interchanges on national routes, and that figure would include exits off one-off homes on to national routes."