An Bord Pleanála overturns 28% of council decisions

Almost 28 per cent of local authority planning decisions appealed to An Bord Pleanála last year were overturned, with four county councils having none of their rulings upheld on appeal.

An Bord Pleanála considered 1,979 planning cases last year, according to its annual report, an increase of 9 per cent on 2014 but well below the 2007 peak of 6,664 cases.

While the board hears some cases directly, such as Strategic Infrastructure Developments (generally projects of regional or national importance), appeals of local authority decisions make up the bulk of its caseload.

Last year 1,646 appeals against decisions of county or city planners were made to the board, up more than 13 percent on 2014.

Almost one in five of the appeals made to the board were against decisions by Dublin City Council. While the council has the State’s busiest planning department, its determinations accounted for just under one in 10 of all local authority planning decisions in 2015.

The city council had the most appeals of its decisions, at 15.6 per cent – more than twice the national average (7.2 per cent), followed by Cork City Council at 12.4 per cent and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council at 11.9 per cent.

But Dublin City Council was below the national average in the number of decisions overturned by the board, at less than 21 per cent compared to the average of 27.5 per cent.

No decisions upheld

Four county councils had none of their decisions upheld on appeal, with An Bord Pleanála either overturning or changing the planners’ decisions in Cavan, Laois, Leitrim and Longford.

The board has three types of ruling: it upholds a local authority decision, reverses it, or varies it.

Most complete reversals were in Leitrim and Longford which both had 50 per cent of their decisions overturned by the board.

In Cavan, just over 18 per cent were overturned and 82 per cent varied. In Laois just under 29 per cent were overturned and 71 per cent were altered by the board.

Almost 60 per of the board’s caseload relates to housing developments, but two thirds of these were for one-off housing or extensions. Less than 20 per cent related to multiple housing developments or apartments, with the rest being miscellaneous developments such as hotels and nursing homes.

The number of appeals of large housing developments, classed as developments with more than 30 houses or apartments, remains low at just 60 in 2015, compared to a peak of 568 in 2007.

“Developments of over 30 units are currently prioritised for decision in line with Government policy in respect of provision of housing,” the board said.

“To date, all of these appeals have been decided within the statutory compliance time of 18 weeks.”