A decision by Donegal County Council to grant outline planning permission to an American-based developer for holiday homes at Porthaw Glen in Buncrana is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
The Buncrana Environmental Group has confirmed it is to lodge an appeal saying the development would damage an important local amenity. Some local residents also intend to appeal the decision.
The issue is controversial because the area is highly valued by local people. Located just north of Buncrana, it includes a popular coastal walk known as Father Hegarty walk. The priest, a martyr during Penal times, is buried nearby. The walk offers views over Lough Swilly. An ancient oak woodland, which has been designated a Special Area of Conservation, is near the site where the houses are to be built. There is also a ring fort nearby.
Donegal County Council has granted outline planning permission for 24 holiday homes and for site development for a further 15. The nearest house would be located 250 metres from the sea.
The developer, Mr Terry Gallagher, who describes himself as a real estate developer and property consultant, is based in Chicago but is originally from Buncrana. He owns 67 acres of land at Porthaw, which he bought in 1996, but the housing development is restricted to a seven-acre site back from the foreshore. As there has always been a public right of way along the coastal walk, Mr Gallagher has ceded this to the council. He has also signed a Section 38 agreement with the council pledging that no further development would take place if planning permission was granted.
The Buncrana Environmental Group says the entire area should be free of development because of its heritage and environmental importance. "We are not surprised that people would want these holiday homes because it is such a beautiful area, but if you build here you will spoil it for everybody," said group spokesman Mr Jim McMenamin. The group has collected 3,000 signatures on a petition against the development, and says that 2,000 of these are local people. It argues that there are very few green spaces left around Buncrana, and that the land should be bought by the council for a public park. The group says if Mr Gallagher wants to build houses, there is land available on the other side of town in a less sensitive area.
Mr McMenamin said development was already "running haywire" around Buncrana. "There is no infrastructure for most of these big housing developments and all the green spaces are nearly gone."
Duchas is not objecting to the plans although it did object last year when Mr Gallagher proposed to build a road through the oak woodland.
The issue was also taken up then by Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP who raised it with the European Commission. Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna has also supported the environmental group.
The architect representing Mr Gallagher, Mr Charlie Doherty, told The Irish Times he believed there had been "a misconception about the extent of the development and the impact it will have on the landscape generally".
He accepted the coastal strip was a "precious amenity" for Buncrana and was used every day by walkers. But he believed Mr Gallagher had behaved "very responsibly" in restricting development to a small portion of his land. The houses would be built on a "field system" near a ruined house back from the shore. The ground rose steeply from the shore and the houses would be on a "plateau" high above the walkway.
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