Councillors in Kerry were endangering tourism, the life-blood of their county, in forcing through planning permissions where applications had been refused, the acting county manager said yesterday.ruin environment
Mr Tom Curran told a Kerry County Council meeting that if the use of Section 140 motions was not curtailed "we might as well tear up the county development plan, ignore national policy and allow people to build anything they like, anywhere they want, ruin our environment and destroy our tourism industry, the life-blood of the county".
More than 60 Section 140 motions, directing the county manager to grant planning permission to developments likely to be refused or already refused, were before the council yesterday.
Most were in the electoral wards of Killarney and the Killorglin-Ring of Kerry area.
Mr Curran outlined the effect of Section 140s on the planning process.
He said technical assessments by various sections of the council including planners, roads and water services and environmental engineers were being ignored.
Planners were also having to cancel meetings with members of the public, and he said applicants who had been refused were not availing of the appeals process by going to An Bord Pleanála but were trying to get Section 140s.
Mr Curran said applicants were refusing to entertain any suggestion of alternative sites or modified designs as they perceived they had easy access to planning approval through the use of the Section 140 process.
Mr Willie Wixted, director of planning and development said that planners were complying with national legislation to preserve ecology, hedgerows and heritage.
He said suggestions that planners in Kerry were "inventing" reasons to refuse development was unfair and untrue.
A senior engineer in planning, Mr Tom Sheehy, said that in fact the Kerry county development plan was liberal but had not been given a chance by the very members who had adopted it.
He could foresee a situation where a woman driving her children to school could be killed because councillors had forced through a planning despite warnings of traffic hazard, he added.
Mr Brian O'Leary (FF) who had signed over 20 of yesterday's motions said the suggestions of agents who put in planning applications would have to be taken into account.
Cllr Michael Cahill (FF) who had signed some 13 of the Section 140 motions before yesterday's meeting said planning was now "a nightmare" for councillors.
Cllr Séamus Cosai Fitzgerald (FG) called for a qualified person from outside the county to be brought in to assess refusals.
The motions were under discussion last night.