THERE has been another drastic slump in the number of new homes and extensions being approved countrywide.
The number of planning permissions granted for new homes has fallen by 61pc this year, with just 5,510 approvals in the first quarter compared to 14,177 for the same period of last year.
The number of houses receiving the green light fell by 65pc to 3,585, and 28pc of these were for one-off homes, compared to 19pc in the same period of 2009, new figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal.
The number of apartments given approval fell by a more modest 51pc to 1,925 units.
The planning department in Waterford city is having a particularly quiet time, with just two new homes approved, while in Limerick city there were just three given planning permission.
And house extensions are also on the wane nationwide, with 1,617 permissions granted in the period compared to 2,499 in the same period of 2009.
The official figures show that demand for planning permission peaked in early 2007, when almost 24,000 new homes were approved in just three months -- a drop of 77pc overall.
Unions
When commercial, government and farm buildings are included, the number of planning permissions granted has fallen by almost 40pc to 4,519.
Some 140,000 jobs have been lost in the building industry since 2007 and the Construction Industry Federation and trade unions this week called on the Government to go ahead with more infrastructure projects to stop further job losses.
They say that less than 10,000 homes will be built in Ireland this year putting Ireland at the bottom of the European construction chart.
Aideen Sheehan
Irish Independent
www.buckplanning.ie
Showing posts with label planning and planning permissions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning and planning permissions. Show all posts
Monday, 28 June 2010
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Planning permissions down 43.9%
Planning permissions were granted for 8,584 housing units during the third quarter, down 43.9 per cent when compared to the 15,293 units in the same three-month period a year earlier.
According to new statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), planning permissions for houses fell by 53.5 per cent year-on-year from 11,532 in the third quarter of 2008 to 5,362 in the same quarter this year.
During the same 12-month period permissions for apartment units fell 14.3 per cent form 3,761 to 3,222.
One-off houses accounted for 24.6 per cent of all new dwelling units granted during the third quarter.
The total number of planning permissions granted for all developments declined 39 per cent year-on-year the figures show.
Planning permissions for new buildings for Agriculture decreased to 203 in the third quarter, down from 314 permissions in the same three-month period a year earlier.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
According to new statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), planning permissions for houses fell by 53.5 per cent year-on-year from 11,532 in the third quarter of 2008 to 5,362 in the same quarter this year.
During the same 12-month period permissions for apartment units fell 14.3 per cent form 3,761 to 3,222.
One-off houses accounted for 24.6 per cent of all new dwelling units granted during the third quarter.
The total number of planning permissions granted for all developments declined 39 per cent year-on-year the figures show.
Planning permissions for new buildings for Agriculture decreased to 203 in the third quarter, down from 314 permissions in the same three-month period a year earlier.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Quinn factory consent at issue in court
QUINN GLASS built Europe’s largest glass-making and bottling factory without planning permission and was well aware of the risk it was taking, a British judge was told yesterday.
Robert McCracken QC said the Irish firm put up the factory near Chester in 2005, although it knew full well that its entire investment was “at risk”.
Almost four years after completion of the factory, on the site of a former power station at Elton, there is still no planning permission in place, and Quinn’s trade rival, Ardagh Glass, is arguing at London’s High Court that the factory should be levelled.
Ardagh, Irish-controlled and Jersey-based, argues that local planning authorities have no power to grant retrospective planning permission, because no Environmental Impact Assessment – required by EU law – was carried out at the outset.
Mr McCracken, representing Ardagh, says the councils are legally obliged to immediately stop the factory from operating and issue an enforcement notice requiring its demolition.
Ardagh’s challenge is being resisted by the councils with the backing of Quinn Glass, which says such draconian steps would be “disproportionate” and cause unnecessary suffering among a workforce of hundreds who would all lose their jobs.
Mr McCracken claimed yesterday that Quinn Glass had in the past said that, if it did not receive planning consent for the factory, it would strip the plant of all its massively costly equipment and move the operation to northern France.
Earlier, the judge was told that Ardagh is concerned that the four-year time limit for the councils to take enforcement action against the plant is due to expire this year and then the factory will become “immune” to planning control.
Vincent Fraser QC, putting the councils’ case, said the land on which the factory stands had been left contaminated by its former use for a power station and “at no stretch of the imagination could be called a greenfield site”.
Planning consent had been granted for a smaller glass manufacturing plant on the site in 2003 after full consideration of environmental issues. When Quinn Glass, in 2004, asked for permission to build a bigger factory, the council mistakenly took the view that this could be dealt with by “amendment” to the 2003 permission.
“It was a mistake made in good faith and there was no question of the local planning authority ignoring the impact,” Mr Fraser said.
The councils had considered taking enforcement action at an early stage after it became clear that the factory was being built without “express planning permission”. “Dealing perfectly properly with a difficult situation”, he said the councils decided that any impact on local people was not serious enough to make it “expedient” to order an end to the development.
The factory construction, “substantially completed” in 2005, went ahead in line with the conditions attached to the original 2003 planning permission – although on a larger scale – and minimal numbers of complaints were received from local residents, the QC said.
Mr Fraser says the councils are under no legal obligation to take enforcement action to remove the factory and are empowered to “retrospectively regularise” the position by granting Quinn Glass’s latest applications, subject to the secretary of state’s authorisation.
Quinn Glass, which says it has acted with full sensitivity to the environment, put in its latest planning applications in February last year and the councils say their ruling on them is “imminent”.
The case continues.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Robert McCracken QC said the Irish firm put up the factory near Chester in 2005, although it knew full well that its entire investment was “at risk”.
Almost four years after completion of the factory, on the site of a former power station at Elton, there is still no planning permission in place, and Quinn’s trade rival, Ardagh Glass, is arguing at London’s High Court that the factory should be levelled.
Ardagh, Irish-controlled and Jersey-based, argues that local planning authorities have no power to grant retrospective planning permission, because no Environmental Impact Assessment – required by EU law – was carried out at the outset.
Mr McCracken, representing Ardagh, says the councils are legally obliged to immediately stop the factory from operating and issue an enforcement notice requiring its demolition.
Ardagh’s challenge is being resisted by the councils with the backing of Quinn Glass, which says such draconian steps would be “disproportionate” and cause unnecessary suffering among a workforce of hundreds who would all lose their jobs.
Mr McCracken claimed yesterday that Quinn Glass had in the past said that, if it did not receive planning consent for the factory, it would strip the plant of all its massively costly equipment and move the operation to northern France.
Earlier, the judge was told that Ardagh is concerned that the four-year time limit for the councils to take enforcement action against the plant is due to expire this year and then the factory will become “immune” to planning control.
Vincent Fraser QC, putting the councils’ case, said the land on which the factory stands had been left contaminated by its former use for a power station and “at no stretch of the imagination could be called a greenfield site”.
Planning consent had been granted for a smaller glass manufacturing plant on the site in 2003 after full consideration of environmental issues. When Quinn Glass, in 2004, asked for permission to build a bigger factory, the council mistakenly took the view that this could be dealt with by “amendment” to the 2003 permission.
“It was a mistake made in good faith and there was no question of the local planning authority ignoring the impact,” Mr Fraser said.
The councils had considered taking enforcement action at an early stage after it became clear that the factory was being built without “express planning permission”. “Dealing perfectly properly with a difficult situation”, he said the councils decided that any impact on local people was not serious enough to make it “expedient” to order an end to the development.
The factory construction, “substantially completed” in 2005, went ahead in line with the conditions attached to the original 2003 planning permission – although on a larger scale – and minimal numbers of complaints were received from local residents, the QC said.
Mr Fraser says the councils are under no legal obligation to take enforcement action to remove the factory and are empowered to “retrospectively regularise” the position by granting Quinn Glass’s latest applications, subject to the secretary of state’s authorisation.
Quinn Glass, which says it has acted with full sensitivity to the environment, put in its latest planning applications in February last year and the councils say their ruling on them is “imminent”.
The case continues.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Major schemes planned for Portmarnock and Balbriggan:
In Portmarnock Shannon Homes is looking for planning permission from Fingal County Council to build 208 houses at Drumnigh Road on a 25-acre site.
The development would include 183 three-bed semi-detached houses and 12 two-bed terraced houses. Shannon Homes is proposing that three of the houses are used as child-minding facilities.
Also in Fingal County Council's jurisdiction, Millbank Developments has applied for planning permission to build a mixed-use urban development on a site of 2.2 acres beside Mill Walk in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
The proposed development is 26,778sq m (288,236sq ft) with a building ranging from three to 10 storeys with 41 retail units arranged around an internal mall on a lower and upper ground floor level with a conical roof over an atrium.
There would also be offices and a medical centre spread over three floors and 49 residential units. The realignment and upgrading of the River Bracken and the provision of a new riverside walkway are also part of the proposal.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
The development would include 183 three-bed semi-detached houses and 12 two-bed terraced houses. Shannon Homes is proposing that three of the houses are used as child-minding facilities.
Also in Fingal County Council's jurisdiction, Millbank Developments has applied for planning permission to build a mixed-use urban development on a site of 2.2 acres beside Mill Walk in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
The proposed development is 26,778sq m (288,236sq ft) with a building ranging from three to 10 storeys with 41 retail units arranged around an internal mall on a lower and upper ground floor level with a conical roof over an atrium.
There would also be offices and a medical centre spread over three floors and 49 residential units. The realignment and upgrading of the River Bracken and the provision of a new riverside walkway are also part of the proposal.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Rising refusals as construction economy falls
Recently there appears to have been a sharp tightening of planning permissions; this appears to have occurred at almost the precise time we began hearing of the slow down in the construction sector - whether there is a statistical correlation with the economy I don't know - what I do know is that suddenly a raft of refusals have been issued. Are we planners influenced by economic stories and by the media? While we have created a planning apparatus which provides for a fair assessment of all planning applications, it suddenly appears as though what was acceptable a year or more ago, is no longer. Anyone else notice this?
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