The High Court has granted Michael Cummins leave to seek judicial review of Limerick County Council’s decision to grant planning permission to Dan Crowley for development at Bruree Lodge and lands, amid concerns that the permission could allow building on part of the disused Cork–Limerick railway route.
In a judgment delivered on 20 July 2007, Mr Justice de Valera said Cummins had established substantial grounds to proceed on a number of his claims and had the required substantial interest in the matter. The court did not decide whether the planning permission was unlawful; it ruled only on whether the judicial review could proceed.
The permission, planning reference 04/2608, was granted in August 2005. Cummins sought to have it quashed and challenged its legality, including on grounds concerning planning regulations and regional planning guidance. He also sought to challenge the county development plan’s treatment of the former railway route.
The council and Crowley opposed the application, arguing that Cummins had delayed and lacked standing, and that he had not made relevant observations on the planning application. The judge accepted at this stage that Cummins was motivated by genuine concerns about preserving the railway route and that the decision could affect him personally. He found that Cummins’s failure to make a submission resulted from his understanding of assurances given by council employees. The judgment noted that there was some conflict about what assurances had been given.
The judge found substantial grounds in relation to several pleaded claims, including alleged encroachment on the former railway route and alleged failures to comply with planning requirements. He did not accept as substantial or sustainable two other grounds, concerning the development’s effect on a site, route or buildings of historical and architectural interest, and the asserted effect on people and authorities along railway routes.
The court ruled that the part of the application challenging the county development plan was out of time and could not continue. It granted leave for the reliefs sought in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Cummins’s motion: an order quashing the permission and declarations about its legality. The council and Crowley undertook to take no further steps under the planning reference until the judicial review hearing is determined. The substantive judicial review remained to be heard.