Tipperary school wins appeal over €30,000 development charge
A Tipperary school has won an appeal overturning a €30,000 development contribution required by the county council as part of planning permission for an extension.
Tipperary Education and Training Board (ETB) applied to the local authority for planning permission to add more than 20 new classrooms to Newport College in the north Tipperary town of Newport.
The plans will see one, two and three-storey extensions added, with 13 regular classrooms, eight specialist classrooms, one special education room, a two-classroom special educational needs (SEN) unit with direct access to its own outdoor play area, and a sensory garden, as well as a new pedestrian access point.
Despite the planning permission being granted by Tipperary County Council, Tipperary ETB made an appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála seeking the removal of one of the planning conditions imposed by the council.
The local authority stipulated that the ETB pay the council a development contribution of €30,000 towards the cost of providing a signalised pedestrian crossing.
An agent acting on behalf of Tipperary Education and Training Board said that the council had failed to fully explain the development contribution that is expected, adding that it is “vague” and not properly justified.
"The local authority does not appear to have considered funding for the pedestrian crossing from the national schemes specifically designed for local authorities to fund the delivery of pedestrian and cycle facilities,” they said.
The agent acting for the ETB also said that the proposed pedestrian crossing will have a benefit to the wider community, not just to the school, and that development contributions should not be used in these cases.
Now, an inspector with An Coimisiún Pleanála has ruled in the school’s favour and instructed that the council remove the condition requiring a contribution of €30,000.
"The exceptional nature of the works and associated costs is not established. Having regard to the documentation on file, I am satisfied that the provision of a pedestrian crossing is required in the interests of public safety, and that such need exists in the current scenario regardless of the proposed development,” the inspector said in their report.
"I would concur with the first party that this would comprise a standard safety feature provided adjacent to schools.
"The proposed development consolidates the current use on zoned lands at this site but does not in itself generate the need for the proposed pedestrian crossing, notwithstanding that it will benefit therefrom,” they added.
The inspector concluded that the crossing was a standard safety measure that would be required regardless of the school’s expansion.