Farmer challenging An Bord Pleanála’s refusal of permission to build new home

A Co Kildare farmer has launched a High Court challenge against An Bord Pleanála’s refusal to grant her permission to build a new house near her current family home which she has to sell.

The action has been taken by Eithna Herbert, who rejects the board’s contention that permission should not be granted because she has not shown a social or economic need to live in this particular part of Co Kildare.

The court heard that she has lived and farmed the area for her entire life and faces the prospect of being made homeless unless she gets permission to build a farmhouse on her own property.

The court heard that Ms Herbert, a mother of two, applied for planning permission to build a single-story dwelling at Lowton, Robertsown, which is outside Naas. The site is some 300m away from her current residence.

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However, her application was turned down by Kildare County Council last May on the grounds that her application for a one-off dwelling did not comply with the county development plan.

She has sought planning permission for the new house as she has to sell her existing family home, ‘Copper Villa’ in Robertstown, for financial and family reasons. ‘Copper Villa’ was built in 2001 close to her ancestral home.

Different reason

She appealed the council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála which upheld the refusal to grant her permission but for a different reason. The board said it was refusing permission on the grounds that Ms Herbert did not demonstrate a social or economic need to live in the area.

As a result, she has brought judicial review proceedings against the board in which she seeks various reliefs from the court including an order quashing its decision to refuse her planning permission for the proposed house and associated works.

She also seeks declarations from the court including that the board acted outside of its powers and failed to provide adequate reasons for its decision to refuse to grant planning permission for the property. She further seeks a declaration that the board’s finding that she has not demonstrated an economic or social need to live in the rural area where she sought planning permission is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could ever have come to it.

Kildare County Council is a notice party to the proceedings.

Flawed

Represented by John Kennedy SC, appearing with Rory Kennedy Bl, instructed by Breda Cullivan Solicitors, Ms Herbert says that the board’s finding is flawed and should be set aside.

Counsel said that his client has farmed more than 15 hectares of land in the area for many years and that her two children attend school locally. His client has no other property and, due to her agricultural obligations, needs to obtain new housing in the immediate area.

Renting would be difficult because most of the houses in the area are owner-occupied family homes, it is also claimed.

The matter came before Mr Justice Tony O’Connor during Tuesday’s vacation sitting of the High Court. He granted Ms Herbert’s lawyers permission, on an ex-parte basis, to bring her challenge against the board’s decision.

The matter was adjourned to a date next month.