Hozier unlikely to obtain planning permission for new guest accommodation at Wicklow home

Trying to obtain planning permission for development at your home can arise for any property owner not just Hozier. Call BPS to discuss if you have any such issues.

One of the country’s most popular music stars, Hozier is singing the blues after Council planners have told him that planned new guest accommodation at his Co Wicklow period property falls foul of planning rules. 

Last year, Hozier, whose full name is Andrew Hozier Byrne, lodged plans to construct ancillary accommodation to his main Oldfort home near Newcastle, Co Wicklow comprising a two bed, two storey detached guest lodge and gym and an adjacent double and single height structure with pitched and flat roofs, for a recreation space. Hozier has previously secured planning permission from the Council for a basement swimming pool and modern grass roof extension for the home that he purchased for €780,000. However, in a letter to the multi-award winning Take Me To Church singer-songwriter requesting revised plans and new reports, the Council has told him that it is unlikely to grant planning permission for the guest lodge.

Read the full article @ The Irish Independent

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Councillors sharply critical of Minister

WICKLOW COUNTY councillors have criticised Minister of State for Planning Ciarán Cuffe (Green Party) over a letter he sent to the council warning the local authority that elements of its county development plan may need to be amended.

At a meeting of Wicklow County Council yesterday, councillors agreed on a draft response to the Minister over his correspondence, which made reference to a number of zonings along the N11 route. In particular, it made reference to the granting of planning permission for a six-building data centre on a site adjacent to Mount Kennedy House, near Newtownmountkennedy.

Mr Cuffe is concerned that the location of the proposed data centre could “significantly undermine” the role of “higher order” employment centres in the county. The letter also reminds councillors that “local authorities have a duty when making/amending plans to ensure that the future development of their areas is based on sound planning principles”.

Fianna Fáil councillor Pat Vance supported the draft response circulated to members, which, he said, gave a “simple explanation” to the Minister for each of the county’s zoning decisions.

“Minister Cuffe couldn’t actually stand over his own development plan in his constituency in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, where they built the Carrickmines shopping centre out in the middle of nowhere, where there was no public transport or anything . . . and we in Wicklow have no major shopping centres or industrial development along the N11,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Derek Mitchell also supported the response to the Department of the Environment and told the council he believed the Minister “is trying to prevent jobs coming to Wicklow”. The county was “one of the best” regions in Ireland as regards sound planning, he added.

At yesterday’s meeting, councillors were also given a presentation by Brian McDonagh, a backer of the data centre project, which was granted permission by the council but has now been appealed to An Bord Pleanála by the National Roads Authority (NRA).

Mr McDonagh told members that more than 2,000 jobs would be created in the construction of the centre, which would provide data storage for some of the world’s biggest IT companies, and thousands more jobs would be provided for the county in spin-off businesses.

The project, which is to be the largest of its kind in the world, would “not be carbon neutral, but will be carbon negative”, and would firmly establish Ireland’s green economy credentials, he said. It would also provide local businesses and homes with energy.

However, Mr McDonagh warned that if planning objections were not resolved “within the next three months”, the project would be lost.

In its appeal, to which Mr Cuffe refers in his correspondence with the council, the NRA has told An Bord Pleanála that the plan would be “at variance with official policy” and is “contrary” to Wicklow’s development plan. The NRA also says traffic assessment studies submitted as part of the plans are “inadequate”.

However, Mr McDonagh said yesterday that any traffic impact would be minimal.

Fianna Fáil councillor Pat Casey expressed “anger” at the NRA. He also said he was “disappointed” with his party’s Ministers who, he said, were “running away” from organisations created by them.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Key changes to Greystones plan

BUILDERS OF the €300 million redevelopment scheme under way at Greystones harbour in Co Wicklow are to seek increases in the residential and commercial elements of the project.

Sispar, a consortium involving John Sisk and Company and house builders Park Developments, in partnership with Wicklow County Council, is proposing to increase the number of new homes in the scheme from 341 to 375.

It also proposes to increase the commercial area to 6,425sq m – an addition of about 800sq m. Car parking at the €300 million redevelopment project is to be increased from 953 spaces to 1002.

Because of the involvement of Wicklow County Council the application is be decided by Wicklow county councillors under Part VIII of the Planning and Development Act, which does not provide for an appeal against the local authority’s decision.

Sispar had initially sought planning permission for 375 homes, the maximum allowed under the County Development Plan. But this was reduced by An Bord Pleanála to 341 in a move designed to reduce the bulk of the new homes at the front of the project and create a larger civic square.

Sispar said the use of Part VIII of the Planning and Development Act was not a move to undermine the planning board’s decision. Spokesman Paraic Keogh said the board’s decision had been designed to create a civic square and this would be retained in the project. The additional apartments would be located to the rear of the development, on part of a site reserved for a 16-acre park. The move would utilise about three acres of the park.

The commercial changes proposed include the redesignation of most of a block of apartments known as “block D” fronting on to the civic square, for commercial purposes.

This increased commercial space would then be used for a primary care, medical centre. Mr Keogh said a deal had already been agreed with healthcare company Meret, which had an agreement with the HSE.

Wicklow County Council director of services Seán Quirke said the application would be the subject of four weeks of public consultation, followed by two weeks for objections.

The decision would ultimately be made by a vote of elected councillors and there was no provision in Part VIII of the Planning Act to appeal the decision either to the council or to the planning board.

The application to reconfigure block D is to be made next week, followed in July by the application to change the number of new homes. Work on the existing harbour walls is due to be completed by this October.

Should planning permission be granted, work will then get under way on the development of the reconfigured block D, car parking and the civic square.

Work would also continue on the provision of facilities for local clubs.

By the end of 2011 hoardings opposite the Beach House pub and Bayswater Terrace would come down and the public would have access to the square and the waterfront.

No date for the start or completion of the housing elements of the plan was given.

According to Mr Keogh the application to vary the development represented a firm commitment to complete the project. “Sispar are prepared to finish with this subject to achieving the necessary amendments,” the company said.

The alternative is that the harbour walls would be completed with an unfinished public square and routes through the site to the sea for boat users, the developers said.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

RTE gets green light for €350m Montrose overhaul

RTE has been given the green light to redevelop its Dublin 4 campus and build a €350m state-of-the-art complex designed for the digital and high-definition age.

Dublin City Council has granted planning permission for building works on the 31-acre Montrose site, which will result in the demolition of the television building and radio centre.

The broadcaster plans to redevelop the campus over a 10- to 15-year period, removing most of the 1960s and 1970s buildings and replacing them with a new 46,500 sq m complex.

The so-called 'Project 2025' has been on the drawing board since 2002 and will be carried out over five phases, assuming An Bord Pleanala does not overturn the decision.

The development is needed because RTE must invest in new digital broadcast production and transmission facilities, but it says it cannot house the new technologies in the existing buildings because they are unsuitable.

Interested parties now have four weeks to raise any objections with An Bord Pleanala, which can then review the planning permission.

The Ailesbury Road Residents' Association is among the objectors that could decide to send the decision to the planning appeals board.

Concerns have been raised about the impact the development would have on the privacy and amenity of local residents.

Yesterday's planning permission includes a number of conditions that address some of those concerns, such as an instruction to lower the height of a new wall on the Stillorgan dual carriageway.

Construction traffic has also been banned from entering the work site through the plush Ailesbury Road and Ailesbury Close, and must instead use the N11.

RTE also has to meet a number of architectural conditions, and work on the site must finish at 6pm on weekdays and 2pm on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or public holidays, barring "exceptional circumstances".

If approved, work will first begin on new high-definition digital TV and radio studios, including a new studio for the 'The Late Late Show' which will be able to hold 800 people-- twice the capacity of the existing facility.

"Some of those studios are creaking already, but the work mightn't begin until this time next year, depending on the planning process," one RTE source said.

The project will be financed through cash reserves and bank loans, and the cash-strapped national broadcaster has insisted licence-fee income will not be used.

Auditorium

The full plans for the Montrose redevelopment include an auditorium for RTE's orchestras and local groups, as well as new production areas, rehearsal areas, performance spaces and staff offices.

RTE is also considering letting some of its new space on the commercial market, though it has ruled out selling any of the development.

Buildings will rise to a maximum of six storeys on the Stillorgan dual carriageway side of the site, where a new entrance is also planned.

When the construction site is in full flow, it is expected that it will employ around 670 workers.

"RTE welcomes the decision as an important step in its plans to ensure Irish licence fee payers continue to receive the best quality TV, radio and online services over the next 20-30 years," RTE's spokesman said yesterday.

Paul Melia and Laura Noonan

Irish Independent

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Wicklow County Council - Forward Planning

In answer to a phone call today, Forward Planning is the area of Wicklow County Council's Planning Department which deals with the preparation and review of the County Development Plan, Local Area Plans, Town Plans, Heritage and Protected Structures.

If you want to make a submission to the Planning Department in respect of any area of the County, it is to this Department the submission goes.

www.buckplanning.ie

Broomfield Local Area Plan

Closing date for submissions is the 14th of January 2010. Contact bps ASAP if you wish to make a submission.

www.buckplanning.ie

Four years' worth of planning files missing in Fingal

FINGAL County Council is missing four years' worth of planning files due to an "ad hoc and haphazard" approach to filing, it has said.

The authority was asked to furnish records of planning applications around Dublin Airport stretching back over four decades as part of an ongoing investigation into controversial planning policy.

Aggrieved landowners in north County Dublin believe they were systematically prevented from securing planning permission due to 'red zone' restrictions, which designate areas under flight paths deemed unsafe to build on.

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has since unveiled plans for a €4bn Dublin Airport City, much of which, landowners say, will fall within those controversial red zones.

At a recent Fingal County Council meeting, Fine Gael's Anne Devitt sought records on all proposed developments in the red zones since 1968 and details on who objected to them.

However, an official response to the query stated that while the task would be enormous, many of the files were simply not kept.

"The files from 1967 to 1994 were microfilmed in an ad hoc and haphazard manner and not all of the files were microfilmed," a statement said.

"The files from 1994 to 1997 were never microfilmed and are no longer available and the files from 1997 to 2003 are stored off site."

Landowner Ken O'Carroll was refused permission to develop both a hotel and a car park in the red zones in 1996, the same period as the files that are deemed "no longer available".

He has been fighting Aer Rianta, now the DAA, for years to get answers as to the apparent double standard in planning that forced him to sell his land while the DAA developed in areas forbidden to everyone else.

O'Carroll insists that compensation is not the issue but that reasonable answers must be given to locals whose lands were "sterilised" of value by the restrictions.

"I could have said that is enough, I'm out of here, but I can't because of how badly people have been treated. A lot of them don't have the power to fight this," he said.

"Everyone's land was sterilised under this and you had no comeback and no compensation. No one will tell us who put in these red zones. We are trying to just get an answer."

A spokesman for the DAA said that the old red zones had since been deemed unsuitable and a new system is now being put in place.

Sunday Tribune

www.buckplanning.ie