The High Court has refused to order Meath County Council to prepare a Local Area Plan for East Meath, despite the council accepting that it had breached its statutory duty to make one.
Protect East Meath Limited had sought an order of mandamus requiring the council to begin the plan-making process. The organisation said Local Area Plans have a separate, more detailed role than the county Development Plan, and argued that the council’s resource constraints did not justify leaving its legal duty unmet.
The council consented to a declaration that it was in breach of its statutory obligations. The remaining issue before Mr Justice Nolan was whether to grant the additional mandatory order. The judgment does not set out the wording of the declaration or record a separate order making it; it records that the court had indicated it would grant the proposed declaratory relief in November 2024.
The East Meath Local Area Plan for 2014 to 2020 was adopted in July 2014 and expired in October 2020. The county Development Plan for 2021 to 2027 took effect on 3 November 2021 and designates East Meath as a “self-sustaining town settlement”. No later Local Area Plan had been prepared.
The council argued that the Development Plan already provided policies for the area, and that preparing a Local Area Plan could be wasteful given planned changes under the Planning and Development Act 2024. It also relied on litigation, policy changes and staff shortages. Its evidence was that the forward planning department fell from four staff in February 2021 to none in December 2024; the council had lost eight experienced executive planners between 2022 and 2024, while four graduate planners were recruited.
The judge rejected the argument that existing policies or anticipated legislation excused the failure to comply with the current statutory duty. He also found that legal challenges and policy changes did not justify the delay. But he accepted that the loss of experienced staff and recruitment difficulties left the council without the necessary expertise, and that the combined circumstances were exceptional.
In exercising his discretion, the judge considered the effect of an order on the council’s other planning work and the limited direct prejudice advanced by the applicant. He concluded that compelling an East Meath plan forthwith would divert resources from other areas in the county and refused mandamus. The refusal leaves the council’s accepted statutory breach in place; the judgment does not order a timetable for preparing the plan.