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Council rejects planning inconsistency claims

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has denied a claim by a lobby group that it has taken an “inconsistent” approach to planning in the county and has also rejected their proposals to address infrastructural problems in the Sandyford Industrial Estate.
In February, the council told landowners it would not grant planning permission for any major developments in Sandyford for the foreseeable future.
The decision came after a study by the local authority identified serious problems in the estate with the foul drainage system and transport infrastructure.
Despite this, An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for a development including 241 new homes in the nearby Stepaside area recently.
Following the decision, the Sandyford Stakeholders Forum - a group of business, development, residential and community interests in Sandyford - described the decision as “bizarre” and said it highlighted an “inconsistent” approach to planning in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown.
The group pointed out that in recent weeks permission for over 1,400 units had been approved in the county but that not one permission had been granted “in the area that the council itself put forward as a model urban quarter that would be the economic engine of the county” [ie the Sandyford Industrial Estate].
“We are told that the reason for the moratorium in Sandyford is a deficit in the traffic infrastructure,” a spokesman for the forum said.
“Proper planning in recent years should never have allowed this to arise, particularly given that Sandyford has generated over e80 million in development levies and has got back next to nothing in return,” he said.
“We have put forward reasonable, sensible proposals as to how the situation can be dramatically improved in the short term but rather than get on with this, we are now asked to stand by as all these new permissions drive more road traffic volume from less well connected parts of the county.”
He added: “Now the emphasis in the council appears to have shifted back to urban sprawl as opposed to urban quarter and this has to be seriously questioned on a wide range of fronts.”
Declan McCullough, a senior executive officer at the planning and economic development department, rejected any suggestion that there was inconsistency in the local authority’s approach to new planning applications in different areas of the county.
“Planning permissions are currently not being granted for major new developments in the Sandyford Business Estates area because of serious deficiencies in foul drainage and transport infrastructure,” he said.
In addition he pointed out that the site of the recently approved for development in Stepaside was in a different foul drainage catchment area to Sandyford and was not subject to the same transport infrastructure constraints.
“The council is working to identify measures to overcome the infrastructural deficiencies in the Sandyford Business Estates area and we are confident that we will be able to facilitate some element of additional development,” he added.
“While proposals have been submitted by the forum to address the deficiencies in foul drainage infrastructure they are not acceptable to the council.
“The council cannot accept the argument that the potential loss of development and associated development levy income justifies permitting new development where basic infrastructure is clearly inadequate.”

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