The group campaigning to protect one of Co Monaghan's finest public amenities said yesterday it was "delighted" by Castleblayney Urban District Council's decision to revoke planning permission for a housing scheme in Lough Muckno Leisure Park.
In a move without precedent in Co Monaghan, the UDC decided by five votes to one, with three abstentions, to exercise a power under the 1963 Planning Act to revoke permission for 51 houses on an abandoned caravan park in the Hope Castle demesne.
The decision - made at the end of a four-hour debate - is likely to be appealed to An Bord Pleanala by the London-based developers, Harinbrook Properties, who had been given a licence to build two major holiday home schemes at the edge of Lough Muckno.
The Monaghan county manager, Mr Joe Gavin, who has championed these schemes as a way to extricate the county council from its debt-ridden involvement in the leisure park, warned that Harinbrook could claim compensation. But opponents said this was unlikely as no work had been carried out.
Mr Joe Brennan, chairman of the Lough Muckno Action Committee, said it would now be working to overturn the second planning permission which was granted to Harinbrook for 88 "holiday homes" and a golf course at Concra Wood, against strong objections from the county planner, Mr Noel MacCann.
Mr Brennan said this permission was "questionable" because no environmental impact study had been done. It also appeared to be a material contravention of the Monaghan county plan.
He said the action committee had raised a "substantial five-figure sum" to continue its campaign to preserve Lough Muckno as a public amenity. This was a measure of the support it had from locals who were strongly opposed to private development on publicly-owned land.
The motion to revoke planning permission was proposed by Mr Michael Geoghegan (FG) and seconded by Mr Jackie Crowe (SF). The councillors who supported it were Ms Karen Lynch (Ind), Mr Joe Bishop (Ind) and Mr Sean McCooey (FF).
