Pat Kenny made ethics complaint amid Dalkey planning row

A planning watchdog has rejected an ethics complaint made by broadcaster Pat Kenny against a consultant in the “badger” planning row over a proposed nursing home adjacent to his family home in Dalkey.

Last week, Mr Kenny said he was “flabbergasted” at An Bord Pleanála’s “crazy” and “bizarre” decision to grant planning permission to Bartra Property for a five storey 104 bedroom nursing home for the “Yonder” site on Ulverton Road and Harbour Road in Dalkey in South Dublin.

A central part of the Kenny opposition was the impact the nursing home scheme would have on a local badger sett and Mr Kenny commented: “This is the badgers’ Alamo. The board with this decision has effectively killed the badgers.”

Now, it has emerged that Pat Kenny and his wife, Kathy, lodged a formal ethics complaint to the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) against planning consultant Patricia Thornton, of Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, during the course of the planning dispute.

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The planning consultancy firm was employed by Bartra Property in the case.

In their complaint, the Kennys alleged that a section of a planning appeal report by IPI member Patricia Thornton contained false and misleading information in relation to the Bartra nursing home scheme.

In their complaint, they told the IPI: “We were shocked by this behaviour and believe that it merits action and sanction by the institute.”

After examining the Kenny complaint, the membership and professional practice committee of the IPI found that a significant breach of the IPI’s code of professional conduct did not take place.

In the IPI decision letter, the three person committee confirmed that Ms Thornton did confirm that the Kenny complaint was correct in that a quote in her planning submission on behalf of Bartra from an An Bord Pleanála Inspector’s report was incorrectly attributed.

[ Pat Kenny loses battle against five-storey nursing home plan ]

The IPI committee found, however, that “while the inaccuracy is unfortunate, it is as a result of human error”.

The IPI subcommittee stated that Ms Thornton has notified An Bord Pleanála of the error.

The three person committee concluded that in light of the correspondence received by the IPI, “the nature of the error and the explanation of the errors, it is the unanimous decision of the subcommittee that a significant breach of the Institute’s code of professional conduct did not take place”.

Asked to comment on the findings of the IPI subcommittee, Mr Kenny said on Monday: “We found the decision by the IPI unbelievable.”

The Newstalk presenter added: “We never heard from the appeals board on this. If Patricia Thornton corrected the report with An Bord Pleanála, everyone who was an observer in the case should have got details for that correction and none of us did, as far as I know.”

A spokeswoman for Thornton O’Connor Town Planning declined to comment.