An Taisce: Developers guilty of illegal demolition must be punished

An Taisce has called on all local authorities to punish property developers who flour planning regulations by demolishing protected structures.
Dublin City Council has instructed a developer to rebuild a 19th century convent it illegally demolished. Ian Lumley, Heritage Officer at An Taisce, said: ‘Dublin City Council have led the way in this regard, we welcome their decision to instruct the developer in Terenure to rebuild and we would urge other local authorities to follow their example. There are concerns that some town councils around the country are not ordering developers to rebuild protected structures.
An Taisce has called on all local authorities to punish property developers who flour planning regulations by demolishing protected structures.
Dublin City Council has instructed a developer to rebuild a 19th century convent it illegally demolished. Ian Lumley, Heritage Officer at An Taisce, said: ‘Dublin City Council have led the way in this regard, we welcome their decision to instruct the developer in Terenure to rebuild and we would urge other local authorities to follow their example. There are concerns that some town councils around the country are not ordering developers to rebuild protected structures.
‘Local Authorities must send a very strong signal to the property development world that illegal demolition will not be rewarded.
Although the structure in Terenure will never be the same as it was, at least it sends out a signal that illegal demotion will not be tolerated.'
Mr. Lumley said developers all around the country were neglecting protected structure leaving them to decay and at risk of arson in order to secure planning permission to completely demolish the whole building.
‘The nature of redevelopment means the developer wants new apartments straight away rather than deal with delays caused by complex historical structures. There have been numerous cases where these buildings go on fire, which is well known to happen and usual the owner / developer is the last person to be unhappy about it', said Mr. Lumley.
Mr. Lumley's comments came as Dublin City Council continues to put pressure on developers Kimpton Vale and its principle Laurence Keegan to rebuild a 19th century convent it illegally demolished in November 2006. The company was served with an enforcement order requiring immediate works to begin on rebuilding the structure. It was demolished just two weeks after the council began proceedings to add the structure to the Record of Protected Structures. However the title had been transferred to Mr. Keegan in May 2006 so the enforcement order must now be reserved on both Kimpton Vale and Laurence Keegan before the council can take further action.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said yesterday that while there were no plans for a specific initiative to get the local authorities to enforce the legislation, he said ‘Minister Gormey has stated on more than one occasion he wants to see local authorities ramp up their enforcement proceedings and this includes where protected structures are impacted upon.'

Ian Power
Irish Examiner