The High Court has refused a judicial review challenge to planning permission for 32 apartments at Graymount House in Howth, and dismissed the applicants’ challenge to Fingal County Council’s earlier planning decision.
In a judgment delivered electronically on 31 May 2024, Mr Justice Barr said An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant permission on 21 October 2022 had annulled the council’s earlier decision. The applicants first moved their judicial review application on 15 December 2022, after the council’s decision had become a nullity. The judge also found they were out of time to challenge that decision and did not qualify for an extension.
The applicants argued that the permitted development would create a traffic hazard because Dungriffin Road has narrow or missing footpaths at either end. The court accepted the inspector’s reliance on uncontroverted engineering evidence that the development would generate a negligible amount of additional traffic. It found the inspector’s assessment was logical and reasonable.
The court also rejected arguments that the development’s density breached planning guidelines or the local settlement strategy. The 32 apartments on a 0.48-hectare site amount to 67 units per hectare. The judge said the guidelines allowed planning judgment and that the 2020 apartment guidelines were to be read alongside the 2009 guidelines. He found the settlement strategy’s allowance of 436 units for Howth was sufficient because the Techcrete permission predated the variation that set that figure.
Other grounds concerned demolition of Graymount House, public access to open space, tree removal and environmental assessment. The applicants accepted the house was not a protected structure or listed as architecturally significant. The court found the inspector had considered reports on the building and reasonably concluded demolition was acceptable. It also found conditions and application documents provided sufficient measures for public access to the open space, and that the tree assessment and proposed planting supported the decision to allow 34 of 86 trees to be removed.
On environmental assessment, the court concluded that the preliminary examination was adequate. It relied on reports finding no bat roosts in the trees to be felled and on the negligible projected traffic increase. The judge said the reasoning in the inspector’s report was terse but clear when read with the material before him.
The court also refused the applicants’ claims against the State respondents under the EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. It found the practical-information claim had not been pleaded with sufficient detail and, in any event, that statutory provisions, court rules and planning guidance provided adequate practical information.
The judgment proposed refusing all relief against An Bord Pleanála and the State respondents and dismissing the application against the council. The parties were given two weeks to make written submissions on costs and ancillary matters, with a remote mention listed for 19 June 2024 to make final orders.