CLARE COUNTY Council yesterday granted planning permission for a large tourist complex, including holidays homes, to the developers of Tinerana House in Co Clare.The plan lodged included the refurbishment of Tinerana House, an 18-hole championship golf course, a 32-bed hotel, 155 two-bed holiday homes and an equestrian centre.In the permission, the council allowed 116 of the 155 holiday homes. Developers Tinerana Ltd had argued with the council that it could only reduce the number of holiday homes to 130, stating that "any further reduction in the short-stay unit numbers would substantially question the commercial viability of the project".Tinerana House was the home of Paschal Carmody, who has been involved in court proceedings concerning controversial cancer treatment.In 2006, the...
JP MCMANUS has been given permission to build a lake on the grounds of his new mansion in Martinstown, Co Limerick.Limerick County Council was initially unhappy with the scale of the project. However, the local authority has since approved the development of a scaled-down lake.The size of the lake for which planning permission has been approved is 5,500sq m, which is just under 1.25 acres.Originally, the lake was to cover an area of 31,000sq m – almost 2½ times the size of Croke Park – and its border was to resemble that of the Limerick county boundary.However, when plans for the lake were lodged with the county council earlier this year, planners said the size and shape of the lake would not blend into the local countryside.The local authority requested that the applicant, Noreen...
MAYO COUNTY Council's decision to grant planning permission for a 100 megawatt peat-and-mixed-fuel power plant at the former Asahi chemicals site near Killala has been questioned by Bord Pleanála.The appeals board has requested the developers to justify the proposed use of 400,000 tons of peat annually given that the "proposal might be contrary to national policy to reduce power generation from peat as a fuel source".In a request for further information on the project, the board asked the developers - Mayo Power Ltd - to "consider and advise whether the proposed development can be operated using biomass and coal as fuel sources only".The company is headed by former Mayo Fine Gael TD and senator Myles Staunton, who owns it jointly with a US-UK consortium, Rockland Holdings, led by Gerald...
The Coca-Cola company is to apply for planning permission to establish a $300 million manufacturing and research and development facility on a 41 acre site in the Wexford Business Park.The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan made the announcement this afternoon.It is expected the new facility will create around 60 jobs after one year rising to more than 100 jobs after five years. The jobs will be in process development, engineering and manufacturing.Ms Coughlan said the company’s decision was a ‘strong endorsement’ of Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for strategically important and knowledge-dependent activities from a leading international...
Planning permission for a 30-metre high telecommunications mast in an area of natural beauty in Co Mayo has been refused by An Bord Pleanála.Galway-based Elevation Limited appealed to the board following Mayo County Council's decision to refuse permission for the structure at Carrowmoney, Partry, south Mayo. The site, at Carrawina is one kilometre from Lough Carra and Lough Mask.A total of 24 letters, and a petition with over 350 signatures, were received objecting to the original application to Mayo County Council.The objections related to the adverse visual impact on landscape, potential health hazards, inaccurate details, proximity to archaeological sites, intrusive impact on nearby residential properties, contravention of county development plan policies and devaluation of...
SMALL school extensions and prefabs will not require planning permission under new proposals published by the Environment Minister John Gormley, writes Aine Kerr.In addition, certain renewable technologies centring on biomass facilities, will also be exempt from the normal planning process according to the draft Planning and Development Regulations from the Department of the Environment.But last night, the Labour Party's Ciaran Lynch objected to some of the proposed changes.He said: "We should be reluctant to give exemptions to any area."What we need are tighter planning regulations and the clearing of any difficulties within the process.Irish...
DUBLIN CITY Council has approved plans for a major revamp of Dublin’s Gresham Hotel which will it expand the number of its bedrooms by almost 50 per cent.Owner Precinct Investment has secured permission for significant expansion and refurbishment of the hotel, including the addition of 179 new hotel rooms and a new glazed conference facility on the eight floor.Designed by architects Cantrell and Crowley, the plans for the 288-bedroom hotel also include a day spa, fitness area and courtyard garden at first floor level.The hotel’s restaurant and a new shop will be at Cathal Brugha Street along with the kitchens and a new function room. A new executive lounge and roof garden will be at seventh floor level.The revamp of the four-star hotel will also involve the demolition of a number of...
PLANNING PERMISSION has been granted for the construction of another co-located private hospital, this time on the grounds of Limerick Regional Hospital.The €250 million hospital is to be built by the Beacon Medical Group, which says it could be built and have its doors open in early 2011 barring any unforeseen circumstances.The Beacon Medical Group has already been given planning permission for two co-located private hospitals on the grounds of Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and Cork University Hospital. However, in both of those cases the decision to grant planning permission has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.Beacon said yesterday its new hospital in Limerick would have 183 beds and six operating theatres, and it would directly employ 400 people. Construction is ready to commence...
SEAN MULRYAN’S Helsingor has got planning permission for 440 homes as part of the fourth phase of a residential development on former racecourse lands at Baldoyle, Co Dublin.In granting planning permission, An Bord Pleanála overruled its own inspector’s recommendation to refuse planning permission and disagreed with the inspector’s appraisal that there was a disproportionate split between the number of houses and apartments which would have a negative impact on achieving the overall objections of the Area Action Plan.As well as over 440 units – made up of apartments, duplexes and houses in seven blocks, and a small number of semi-detached and detached houses – Mulryan got planning permission for a civic park and a crèche.In March he got approval from An Bord Pleanála for a...
DUBLIN CITY Council has given the green light for the redevelopment of the former Hume Street Hospital, which was purchased by businessman Michael Kelly for €30 million in 2006.The prestigious building off St Stephen's Green will be transformed into a serviced office centre while a restaurant and wellness centre will be installed in the basement.There will also be a public museum in an extension at the rear of the former hospital.However, the council has imposed 17 separate conditions on the development, many of which relate to the site's architectural and archaeological conservation.Kelly's serviced office company, Glandore House, submitted a similar planning application last year but the local authority rejected it on the grounds that it breached the city's development plan for the...
BUILDER BERNARD McNamara is set to begin a €1 billion construction project in central Dublin after getting the green light from the city's local authority yesterday.Dublin City Council granted his firm, Michael McNamara and Company, planning permission for the redevelopment of the Burlington Hotel site on the city's southside.The news comes just days after a row between the council and the building company over five public private partnership (PPP) housing projects geared at regenerating a number of inner city areas.Last year, McNamara applied for planning to build a commercial complex including 33,300sq m of office space, restaurants, shops, apartments and leisure and medical centres. It is designed around 1.2 acres of open space consisting of a plaza and public park. The development...
DEVELOPERS BERNARD McNamara and Jerry O'Reilly are seeking planning permission to turn a hotel and hospital at their Elm Park development on the Merrion Road in Dublin 4 into offices.Their company, Radora Developments Ltd, is proposing a change of use for the eight-storey four-star standard hotel on its grounds to over 10,000sq m (107,639sq ft) of office space and a winter garden.It is also proposing that a private day hospital, linked to the hotel, be turned into a further 12,000sq m (129,167sq ft) of offices served by 146 existing car-parking spaces.A spokesperson for Bernard McNamara says the company is looking to turn the private hospital into offices because St Vincent's Hospital is building a new 260-bed private hospital nearby.She said the developer wants to convert the existing...
TRALEE TOWN Council yesterday gave planning permission for a multimillion euro retail park in the historic GAA grounds of the Austin Stack Park.Councillors in the Co Kerry town had rezoned the grounds last October to accommodate retail use. The planned €200 million development is being spearheaded by local businessmen Seamus O'Halloran and John Casey.The project will see the GAA transfer to the Ballybeggan racecourse and coursing grounds outside the town in an area under the remit of Kerry County Council.A 630-page planning application for housing in addition to playing pitches, a 15,000-seater stadium, offices and retail units in Ballybeggan has also been lodged.However, there has been resistance to both applications.In the case of the Austin Stack project, town centre traders have...
PROPERTY DEVELOPER Harry Crosbie has been ordered to cease coastal protection works being carried out near his holiday home in Co Wexford because he does not have planning permission.An enforcement notice issued yesterday by Wexford County Council ordered Mr Crosbie to cease all unauthorised coastal defence works within two days.The council said the works do not have the necessary planning permission and that the site is located within a Special Area of Conservation, meaning any developments would also require an environmental impact assessment and approval from the Department of the Environment.The enforcement notice also stipulated that all unauthorised defence measures in place must be removed within two weeks.The site will be inspected in two weeks and if the enforcement notice has...
The gas terminal was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála two weeks ago, following the public planning process which culminated in an oral hearing held in January 4.Throughout that hearing, one group of locals put up a strong fight against the plan, principally on the grounds of safety. They said that if any major accident were to happen on the site many lives would be in danger. Shannon LNG, the company behind the plans, however, said safety procedures at the plant would be extremely high.‘Our fight isn't over yet by a long shot', KRA member, Johnny McElligott, told The Kerryman. ‘We feel that as a group of ordinary people living in the area we were badly let down by the fast-tracking nature of the strategic infrastructure planning process. The fact that only 40...
THREE WOMEN who previously owned a tract of land beside Dublin airport, which was rezoned in the 1990s, have alleged before the High Court that there was a conspiracy between the Dublin Airport Authority and developers Dunloe Ewart plc to prevent their family getting planning permission for the property.Anne Donegan, Lucy Donegan and Anne O'Malley had initiated proceedings against the Minister for Transport, Aer Rianta (now the Dublin Airport Authority) and Dunloe Ewart but, in a judgment on a preliminary issue in the case yesterday, Mr Justice Brian McGovern granted an application on behalf of the Minister to have the case against him struck out.The case will now proceed against Aer Rianta and Dunloe Ewart.The women had claimed misrepresentations were made by the Minister and Aer Rianta...
AN BORD Pleanála has granted Michael Cotter's Park Developments permission for around 700 homes as the first phase of a development at Clay Farm fronting Kilgobbin Road, and Ballyogan Road in D18. The scheme will be a mix of apartments and houses, include a local centre, office, shops and a 13.2-acre public space. It is part of a plan for 2,000 homes on the site.The Irish...
AN BORD PLEANÁLA has ruled that a property developer needs planning permission to land a helicopter on land near his home.Michael O’Flynn, the managing director of O’Flynn Construction, referred the matter to the board after Cork County Council said, in 2007, that the use of a piece of land at his home in Kilcrea, near Ovens, Co Cork, for helicopter landings was development and was not exempted development.Exempted development does not require planning permission. Mr O’Flynn sought a ruling from the board as to whether the use of land for the landing and take-off of a helicopter on the grounds of his home at Rockfield House in Kilcrea “is or is not development, or is or is not exempted development”.The matter was listed for decision on several dates in recent months but was...
CLARE COUNTY Council has granted planning permission for a contentious plan to construct a €10 million explosives plant along the Shannon estuary.In the county's longest-running planning saga, the council yesterday gave Shannon Explosives Ltd the go-ahead to construct the plant at Cahercon pier, Kildysart.However, the decision is unlikely to be the last move in the long history associated with the controversial plan and the decision is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála by opponents of the scheme.The Kildysart Explosives Factory Opposition Group yesterday confirmed that it would be appealing the decision to the appeals board and stated that if necessary, the group would take a legal challenge to stop the plan proceeding."We have opposed the plan for 7½ years and will oppose it...
An unsafe playground was cited as one of the reason for refusing planning permission for a residential development in Killiney.Planners at Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have turned down plans to build 29 houses at the home of fashion retailer Seán Barron on Ballinclea Road.O'Flynn Construction was looking to demolish the house on the 2.8-acre site to make way for three detached houses, 22 semi-detached houses and four terraced houses.The Cork-based developer purchased the six-bedroom house - called Broadlands - from Barron, the man behind the Pamela Scott brand, in 2006 for €22 million. The house had its own tennis court and lots of mature trees.The site has a prime location opposite the entrance to Killiney Golf Club. It backs on to Cluny Park and has extensive frontage on to...
LIAM CARROLL, the developer, has secured planning permission from Dublin City Council to demolish a five-storey city centre apartment complex built just 10 years ago under a tax incentive scheme which expires this summer, and replace it with a six-storey office block.The 47-unit apartment block on the corner of Watling Street and Island Street, just south of the city quays and adjacent to the Guinness Brewery, was built under the Section 23 tax incentive scheme designed to rejuvenate rundown areas of the city.The tax reliefs available to owners of Section 23 apartments expire on July 31st.The apartment building is part of the Maltings complex built by Mr Carroll's company Zoe Developments in the mid-1990s. The Maltings blocks A, B and C were completed by 1996 and were sold to private...
THE €100 million-plus redevelopment of the Curragh racecourse in Co Kildare has finally been approved by An Bord Pleanála more than two years after permission for the development was first sought by the Irish Turf Club.In what has been described by the Turf Club as the biggest development project in the history of Irish racing, the racecourse will be transformed to accommodate more than 50,000 spectators by 2010 on a 10-hectare site.The main features of the new development are a five-storey grandstand incorporating a museum, bars, restaurants and tote halls; the redevelopment of the Stand House Hotel; a new parade ring; and a new champagne bar. Work is due to begin at the end of this year's racing season in September and is planned for completion in 2010.The developments were applied...
PLANNING PERMISSION for a €230 million residential development at Barrington Tower on the Brennanstown Road in Cabinteely, Dublin 18, has been appealed by local residents to An Bord Pleanála.Estate agent Bill Doyle who bought the 8.6-acre site in 2005 for a then record price of €36 million - €21 million over the guide price - got planning permission from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to build 158 houses and apartments.The scheme is designed as a mix of 25 detached houses, 12 semi-detached houses, six terraced houses and 109 apartments.However Cabinteely and District Residents' Association is one of two parties appealing planning permission for the development, saying it would be premature pending the preparation of a local area plan.The residents' association says the...
The Beacon Medical Group will today seek planning permission to build a privately-operated women's, children's and maternity hospital beside the existing Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, Dublin.The group expects to spend about €160 million on the project if it succeeds in its application. Barring any major delays to planning permission or construction, the hospital could be open in about 2½ years.While the hospital will be privately-funded, the group has a service level agreement with the HSE and under its tax agreement, it must retain at least 20 per cent of its capacity for HSE patients.The proposed facility will be able to use the acute, diagnostic and consulting facilities at the adjoining Beacon Hospital.It will have 120 en suite, inpatient rooms and will have the capacity to...
PLANS for a major housing development in the West Sligo seaside resort of Enniscrone, which attracted some intense local opposition and critical observations from a number of public bodies, have been approved by the board members of An Bord Pleanala.Permission for the development of 200 housing units, three retail units and a creche at Carrowhubbock South, off the Enniscrone-Easkey road and eight miles from Ballina had been applied for by the Hannon family and approved by Sligo County Council.This decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanala by Brendan and Deirdre Quinn and others. The planning board’s inspector, Emer Doyle recommended refusal but she was directed by the Bord members to draw up “rea-ons, considerations and conditions” for a grant of permission with conditions.The site...
MULTI-millionaire developer Sean Dunne can now turn a residential apartment block into rooms exclusively for students, following a Circuit Civil Court judgment yesterday.Mr Justice Esmond Smyth said Merrion Grove Management Company Ltd, Stillorgan, Dublin, had since December last unreasonably witheld its consent to the interior redevelopment of the block.John Nolan, counsel for the company, said an application by a Dunne-controlled company, Mountbrook Homes Ltd, for a change of use permission was still before An Bord Pleanala.Judge Smyth decided that for several years past, the management company for the residents in the Merrion Grove apartments complex, while witholding its consent, had not done so unreasonably because Mountbrook Homes had breached a lease covenant in starting...
Pascal Conroy’s Albion Properties is seeking planning permission for 220 apartments and 5,135 square metres of office space at a 1.88-acre site next to St Brendan’s Hospital in Grangegorman in Dublin 7.The company is also seeking to develop a creche, just under 290 square metres of shops, a 178 square metre gallery and a restaurant on the site.The site incorporates part of Grangegorman Lower, Blake Villas, 22-27 North Brunswick Street and is next to the Richmond apartment complex.All of the existing structures on the site are to be demolished under the plan, and just under 23,700 square metres of development would then be built, including 44 one-bed units, 164 two-beds and 12 three-beds.The development would be spread between six blocks, ranging in height from two to 11 storeys. If...
A MAJOR commercial development planned for near Carrick-on-Shannon has been given the go ahead by Roscommon County Council.The mixed-use scheme which will include retail units, a restaurant and a creche is set on a 3.34 hectare site at Cortober, adjacent to an area already identified as the location for a proposed business campus.Dublin-based Palladio Properties was granted permission to build the integrated commercial/retail development subject to 27 conditions.The complex will include a main anchor retail unit incorporating food and drapery space with a gross floor area totalling 4,656sq m along with a secondary retail unit and a restaurant measuring 165sq m.A medical centre with a floor area of 257sq m and a creche measuring 212sq m will also form part of the scheme.The development...
A PROMINENT Mayo businessman has voiced ‘serious concerns’ about the current planning system, which allows organisations like An Taisce to lodge objections and delay much-needed developments in rural areas.Mr Noel Howley was this week granted permission for a new warehouse/delivery depot in Belgarrow, Foxford – nine months after Mayo County Council had initially granted permission.“The new depot is badly needed because where we are currently located we could not expand. I was delighted when I got my planning permission from Mayo County Council but on the very last day they could object, An Taisce lodged an objection.“I actually spoke to someone in An Taisce and he admitted to me that the only reason they lodged the objection was because the National Roads Authority did not....
A RENOWNED architect has put an unusual site on the market in a leafy Dublin surburb with an asking price of €350,000.The catch?The "site" is in fact a tract of air between two existing houses, which overhangs the current "owner's" access road."This is an unusual opportunity to acquire a very well located property which has potential subject to planning permission to enhance and further develop," the property's brochure boasts, adding that the opportunity "should be of interest to a shrewd investor/developer with the resources to undergo the planning process and create an innovative and cutting edge property of striking appeal.""It's a very competitive price," insisted Tom O'Higgins of Remax's Dun Laoghaire branch, who is selling the property on behalf of architect Alfred E Jones. "It's...