Celbridge developer warned council of possible 'substantial damages'
CELBRIDGE, 7 June 2000: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. A developer who last week received agreement from Kildare County Council to the second phase of a housing development at Oldtown Mills in Celbridge had earlier warned the council it could face ‘substantial damages’ if it took action against him for alleged non-compliance with planning permission conditions.
The agreement that the developer - Mountbrook Homes Ltd - can proceed with a further 211 houses of a 460-house development came just a month after two Enforcement Notices had been issued by the council against the developer’s companies, but not acted on. The agreement is also directly against the recommendation of Kildare’s county engineer, Jimmy Lynch.
Celbridge area local representative Deputy Emmet Stagg (left) claims the agreement represents a ‘capitulation’ by the planning authority to demands of the developer. He intends to raise the issue at Friday’s area meeting of the councillors in Celbridge.
The matter relates to a development which received planning permission in January 1998, along the line of the Celbridge Inner Relief Road (below) which was to be built by the developer as part of the deal. Legal difficulties over the ownership of land at either end of the 80%-completed road delayed completion of the road, badly needed to alleviate traffic congestion in Celbridge. The difficulties relating to the Maynooth Road end have been resolved, but last week Kildare County Council began Compulsory Purchase Order procedures in relation to the Clane Road end.
The original permission was the subject of a Bord Pleanala appeal by Thornhill Residents Association, which failed and allowed the development subject to conditions which included that a ‘phasing programme’ should be agreed in writing with the council before the development commenced, that the Celbridge Relief Road be constructed by the developer, and that occupation of the proposed houses should be ‘agreed with the planning authority in relation to the availability and completion of the relief road’.
Mr Dunne submitted details of a ‘compliance package’ to Kildare County Council In May 1998. In January 1999, the developer requested permission to proceed with Phase 1 of the development, involving 169 houses. This was agreed in March of that year by county engineer Jimmy Lynch.
On 14 January of this year, KCC executive technician Sean Byrne notified the council that a second phase of 30/40 had begun ‘in breach of the phasing conditions agreed with the county engineer’.
In an internal letter dated 21 January 2000 (above), the county engineer noted that the council ‘had not directly responded’ to the compliance package submitted by the developer in 1998, where Mr Dunne had proposed to complete and occupy ‘in the region of 150 to 200 houses per annum’. Mr Lynch said the construction of 169 houses for phase 1 ‘was in line’ with the conditions required under the Bord Pleanala decision. He said, however, that it ‘is not clear’ that any subsequent phases were agreed, ‘because of the lack of response’ [by KCC] to the compliance package letter of 16 June 1998.
The county engineer also noted that the developer had agreed to complete the Celbridge Relief Road ‘when Kildare County Council completes the current CPO procedures for the land required to develop the remainder of the road’. Mr Lynch recommended (below) that no further occupation of houses should be permitted ‘until the Celbridge Relief Road is completed in full’, because any further housing development ‘would adversely affect traffic congestion’ in Celbridge.
A month later, Eilish Murray of the KCC Maynooth office wrote to the Roads Section noting that a section of road being used by the developer ‘appeared to be unauthorised’ and had led to a ‘very dangerous’ traffic situation.
A letter to the council on 1 March of this year by Sean Dunne, managing director of Mountbrook Homes Ltd, ‘strongly cautioned’ the council against taking action to halt his development. He said any such action would be ‘vigorously defended’ by Mountbrook ‘in whatever forum that action might be taken’. Mr Dunne said this could have a consequence of possible substantial damages against the council ‘should their actions, if embarked upon, prove to have been incorrect’.
Mr Dunne also called attention to the fact that there were over 250 men currently employed on the site, ‘constructing houses in accordance with planning permission, in an economy where there is an acute shortage of houses’. The developer invited the council to have its own legal people look at the situation.
Two Enforcement Notices were subsequently issued by KCC on 28 April, on the basis that the developer, and other companies on the site - Anderfield Developments Ltd and Portinscale Ltd - had failed to comply with the planning condition that required an agreed ‘phasing programme’ between the developer and the council.
No follow-through action was taken by the council on the Enforcement Notices, which gave the developer a month from April 28 to comply with their conditions. On 31 May 2000, the developer received agreement that a further 211 houses could be built on the development, subject to five conditions relating to speed ramps to be built in the nearby St Raphael’s Manor estate, which had been built by Anderfield Developments Ltd.
In a statement, Deputy Emmet Stagg says the developer has received ‘the necessary licence’ to complete practically 80% of his original project without completing the ring road ‘deemed to be essential by the plannners in Kildare County Council and Bord Pleanala. “We now have close to 400 houses without the minimal infrastructure that all agreed was required before the houses came on stream,” he says, and claims it is a ‘planning fiasco’ which lies directly with the county engineer and the county manager.
He also notes that a motion he moved at an area meeting last October (below), directing the county engineer not to approve the building or occupation of any further houses until the relief road was completed in full received no seconder or support from his fellow councillors, Kay Walsh or Geraldine Conway.
“Surprisingly, the county engineer was in agreement with my motion,” he says. “If I did receive the support of my colleagues, the outcome, I feel, would have been different.”
KNN understands that a CPO can take an absolute minimum of 13 weeks for a ‘friendly’ situation, or up to two years if there are appeals procedures and court actions taken by landowners.
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