The High Court yesterday reserved judgment on an application for leave to seek orders in respect of an application for planning permission for 240 houses and a new sewage plant at Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow.
Garden Village Construction Company Ltd, with an address at Dame Street, Dublin, brought the application for leave for judicial review of a purported application for planning permission made by Gannon Homes Ltd, Killorglin House, Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Garden Village is seeking leave to secure orders restraining Wicklow County Council from further considering or adjudicating on the application.
It is seeking a declaration that the application is invalid because it is outside the powers of the council and that it fails to comply with the mandatory regulations of the planning Acts.
The hearing arose out of an application by Gannon Homes, submitted on June 12th 1997 to Wicklow County Council, for a housing development of 240 houses and a new diffused-air sewage "package plant" to replace existing plants at Moneycarroll and Newtownmountkennedy.
In a letter in July 1997 the council told Gannon that it did not consider the application complied with the planning regulations and asked it to give certain particulars in order to complete the application. The court was told that this request has not yet been complied with.
Mr James Macken SC, for Gannon, said that his clients were awaiting the outcome of the present proceedings.
Mr Dermot Flanagan, for Wicklow County Council, said that the council could not and would not make a decision on the Gannon application until the application complied with the planning laws. In those circumstances, the application by Garden Homes was premature, he submitted.
The council claims Garden Homes has no locus standi to maintain the proceedings in the absence of a valid application for planning permission. Alternatively, it submits that Garden Homes's application is an abuse of process.
The council says it acted at all times within its powers and in accordance with its functions, powers.