The High Court refused a judicial review challenge by Patrick Golden to Kerry County Council’s decision to invalidate his planning application for stone extraction and processing at Knockaneyouloo, Kells, County Kerry. The court held that the application was lodged one day outside the required two-week period after the public notices.
Mr Justice Hedigan delivered the judgment on 29 July 2011. The application sought to quash the Council’s invalidation decision of 25 June 2008, compel an unconditional grant of planning permission and obtain declaratory relief. The case proceeded as a telescoped hearing, addressing both leave to seek judicial review and the substantive challenge.
The newspaper notice and site notice were published or erected on 29 May 2008. Golden lodged the planning application on 12 June 2008. He argued that the application day should not count when calculating the two-week period and that the Council had therefore acted unlawfully by treating the application as late. He also argued that a default planning permission arose under section 34(8) of the Planning and Development Act 2000.
The Council argued that both the notice date and application date counted in the calculation, making the 12 June application 15 days after notification. It also submitted that the proposed extraction site covered 5.71 hectares and required an environmental impact assessment, which had not been carried out. The Council maintained that no default permission could arise in those circumstances. The court did not decide the environmental assessment argument.
The judge granted leave to apply for judicial review, finding that a reasonable question had been raised about how the two-week period should be calculated and that Golden had the required substantial interest. On the substantive issue, the court applied section 18(h) of the Interpretation Act 2005, which includes the day a period begins and the day it ends. It counted 29 May and 12 June in the calculation and concluded that the application was lodged 15 days after the notices, one day outside the limit.
Because the Council had correctly treated the application as out of time, the challenge to its decision failed. The court said the question of default permission did not arise and refused the relief sought. The judgment records no order compelling the Council to grant planning permission.