Louth County Council seek assurances over compliance with conditions of planning permission from developers
Fianna Fáil councillor Shane McGuinness has outlined his ‘grave’ concerns over a proposed housing development at a large site off the Blackrock Road, via Bothar Maol which is a narow lane off the Dundalk to Blackrock Road. McGuinness has cited a lack of infrastructure in the area which he says does not lend itself to a high density development such as the one proposed by Marina Quarter Ltd, a subsidiary of Glenveagh Homes.
In 2019 Louth County Council granted that company planning permission for a 483 house development which was subject to 24 conditions. In November 23 a new application was lodged for 503 homes but this was refused by Louth County Council twelve months ago and that decision was upheld by An Bord Pleanala following an appeal by the developers.
Following that refusal, the developers went back to their original plans (which had been granted planning permission in 2019) to build 483 homes and in November they issued a commencement notice to Louth County Council stating that work would begin on December 11th. However, in a further muddying of the waters the land which the developers are hoping to build the houses on was re-zoned in November following a submission from Cllr. Shane McGuinness.
Now McGuinness has asked the question whether the developers are complying with the 24 conditions attached to the original planning permission and he has welcomed the fact that Louth County Council have been in contact with the developers to ask that exact question.
“Louth County Council are corresponding directly with Glenveagh on the requirements for compliance with the conditions from a 2019 grant of planning which Glenveagh are working off at present. They have written a warning letter to the developer/owner of the site regarding non-compliance of conditions and that they will now be afforded time to respond to this letter as per the provisions of the planning legislation,” explained McGuinness.
“The council have also said that all planning compliance documentation will be uploaded to the online planning system for public view, as it is received and then processed.
“While this is all going on, and since the councillors have moved to rezone this land back to strategic reserve, the date for adopting the new Local area plan into the county development plan will be pending and will not come into effect until possibly well into February 25.
“By this time, the 2019 grant of planning will have run out and the land will be dezoned and a significant amount of progress on the completion of the 2019 grant will possibly not be sufficient to continue the development. And the developer may have to resubmit a further planning application to continue.
“As a local councillor to the area of the site, I had grave concerns about the impact this high-density development would have on an ever-growing community where I believe the pattern of design and the landscape requires low density housing and would set an undesirable precedent for other similar developments within this area and would be contrary, I believe, to proper planning.
“The whole lack of infrastructure in every way just does not lend itself to a high-density housing and as Uisce Eireann has highlighted themselves, they just do not have the investment and systems to achieve the levels of water and waste water capacity at present. This I believe is 4 to 5 years down the line.
“This brings me to a much bigger question that the entire country needs reassurance on. We have a housing crisis that needs fixing and as ambitious as the Government may be, the next Housing Minister needs to do something different. He or she needs to face our housing crisis as an emergency. That it will be a whole of Government approach. We may have to bend the rules, or we just will not reach our targets.
“You have seen how we were able to house over 100,000 people from the war in Ukraine, at short notice, and when we had to deal with Covid 19, we did it and did it well. But now’s the time for someone in high office to be very brave and make the really big decisions on housing. To form an infrastructural department, separate from housing, and invest heavily in it to design and create the proper infrastructure to go hand in hand with the houses we need in a strategic and pragmatic way where we think about the next 50 years and not just think about the next 2 or 3. An overarching and sensible approach.
“Irish water has taken in a consultancy company called EY who have reported major catastrophic issues down the line where we need high levels off infrastructural investment, or we face mass outages and problems all over the system which will have a devastating effect on our economic and social concerns which would lead to pressures on society.
“Many of the problems in health, immigration, environmental and Homelessness hasn’t been helped by throwing money at them. The root cause of many of these issues I believe could be housing, and its lack of infrastructure that is now the main concern to hitting the targets we need.
“Site 16 in Blackrock is certainly and potentially, an example of the issues the entire country could face down the line,” concluded McGuinness.
A comment from Louth County Council confirmed that a warning letter has been issued to Glenveagh Homes who have not as yet responded to calls for confirmation that 24 conditions to the approved planning permission from 2019 have been met.
“Louth County Council can confirm that a warning letter was issued on the 19/12/24 in respect of this matter . Glenveagh Homes have up until the 28/01/25 to make written representations in respect of this correspondence i.e. 4 weeks + an additional 9 days to account for the Christmas period. No response has been received to date. The 2019 permission Ref : ABP-304782-19 is extant until the middle of January 2025,” read the statement from the local authority.
