The High Court has quashed An Bord Pleanála’s permission for 131 homes and associated works off Stocking Lane, Ballyboden, after finding that the developer had not demonstrated the site was served by public transport with high capacity.
In a judgment delivered on 13 February 2024, Mr Justice Humphreys upheld one of the grounds brought by Ballyboden Tidy Towns Group in its judicial review of the board’s February 2022 decision. The project was permitted as a Strategic Housing Development and would materially exceed building-height limits in the South Dublin County Development Plan.
The 2018 Building Height Guidelines require an applicant seeking to rely on a specified policy route for increased height to demonstrate, to the planning authority or board’s satisfaction, that the site is well served by public transport with high capacity, frequent services and links to other transport modes. The court said the developer had addressed service frequency but not capacity. The board’s inspector supplied figures of his own, but that did not meet the developer’s obligation. The inspector also wrongly placed the burden on those objecting to show that capacity was lacking, the judge found.
The court concluded that the board could not lawfully rely on that policy route to justify granting permission in material contravention of the development plan. The judge said the outcome followed an earlier Ballyboden judgment on the same public transport issue.
The group also challenged the application over land said to belong to the owner of No. 9a Prospect Heath, whose consent had not been obtained. The judge did not decide whether the group could bring that challenge because it was not necessary to the order. A separate challenge argued that Uisce Éireann’s letters did not adequately confirm water and wastewater capacity and feasibility. That ground failed: the judge read the letters as confirming both, and said no valid challenge to the merits of the utility’s position had been pleaded.
Other domestic grounds, including challenges to the board’s reasons for allowing the height contravention and its handling of traffic submissions, failed. Some grounds were withdrawn or not pursued in submissions; the court did not address the European-law grounds after finding for the group on the public transport issue.
The court ordered certiorari to quash the permission. It directed that, unless a party applies otherwise by written submission within 14 days, the applicant would receive its costs from the board, with no costs order for or against the other parties. The matter was listed for 4 March 2024 to confirm the order or set a date for any application. The judgment does not itself determine any new planning application.