Some developers ‘giving two fingers’ to Tipperary communities — councillor hits out at planning breaches
Some developers in Tipperary have been accused of “giving the two fingers” to their community by knowingly building properties that differ significantly from what they were granted planning permission for.
That’s according to Fianna Fáil councillor John Carroll who was speaking to members of the council’s planning section at the July meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District.
Cllr Carroll questioned the number of retention planning applications that had been submitted to the council in recent times.
Retention permission is sought when someone has carried out works without express permission from the county council, and can often be used to regularise small changes to properties.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Carroll said some people are knowingly “flouting the laws”.
“There’s an increase in the number of applications coming in for retention. Now, I’m not talking about the very small scale, my focus and attention is on the bigger scale where people are knowingly breaking the rules,” Cllr Carroll said.
“The applications are coming in to get permission to retain it. What’s even worse is when they go to An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP).
“People of good faith will engage in consultations, committee meetings and with their communities and they’ll see that their residential units are in keeping with the planning guidelines that are there,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.
However, he added, there was cohort of people who did none of this, and built what they like, giving “the two fingers” to the communities they’re building in.
“There’s a number of them, and I’m not talking about any specific one, where people are getting really despondent at community level. In recent times, ACP seems to be granting more of them, whether it’s the deficiency in terms of housing or the number of housing applicants, but that shouldn’t be the basis under any circumstances,” he said.
“Where people engage in planning multi-residential units [that differ from what was granted], and they were granted by ACP, these people have given the two fingers to communities when people only want to see the sustainability of their community,” Cllr Carroll added.
The continued granting of these types of applications by ACP was making people “despondent” he said, and added that people didn’t want to engage with the planning system because of it.
In response, a member of the council’s planning team said that the local authority has to respect the decisions of An Coimisiún Pleanála, no matter what they think of it.