Ireland's
planning permission debate An Bord Pleanála has come under fire for choking the nation's housing supply. Laura Noonan talks to chairman John O'Connor, about the rationale behind its decisions
Coming at a time when excess demand continues to drive house prices upwards, the news prompted predictable outcry from certain quarters, with ABP being accused of strangling the nation's housing supply and ignoring the woes of first time buyers. It is an accusation which chairman John O'Connor rejects emphatically. "Of course we take account of housing needs," he said. "We do give priority to decisions on large developments and we have a system in place of giving priority to large schemes in particular areas under pressure like Dublin. "But at the same time we still have to make decisions with regard to proper and sustainable development. We've approved an awful lot of developments, but we have refused some recently, notoriously in the Dun Laoghaire area. If you have a development with a large number of small units or single aspect units, then we're not going to approve them. I think that message has gone out strongly. "And because of those cases that Hooke & MacDonald are getting excited about you may already be seeing a change on the part of developers, as they realise that sub-standard developments are not going to be approved." O'Connor also stressed that the development turned down by ABP are not permanently ruled out. "There is this nonsensical thing that gets put out, that if a development is refused by the board it's gone," said O'Connor. "In reality, those houses could be back in the system within a month or two if they're redesigned. "You can take it that if land is zoned and serviced it will be developed. Those dwellings are not lost to housing production." The number of decisions overturned by ABP is also related to drastically different standards applied by local authorities. The board's most recent annual report, published last week, showed that decisions were overturned in 57 pet cent of cases involving Donegal County Council, and in just 15 per cent involving Offaly County Council. "The guidelines [to local authorities] are very strong on quality of development and standards," said O'Connor. "Unfortunately some developers and perhaps some local authorities are looking at the quantity only and have last sight of the quality." ABP decisions are influenced by a myriad of different factors, with the board bound to "take note of" a variety of guidelines from the Department of the Environment. However, none of these guidelines are absolutely binding giving rise to comments that the board's decisions can be somewhat arbitrary. It is about balances - it's not about absolutes," said O'Connor. There are a lot of areas of regulation that you can be quite clear about. Unfortunately, planning isn't like that and there's often a judgement call between competing interests. "Most developments have some impact on the environment but most developments are desirable. "You have to ask is the impact it's having on the environment worth the development benefits? "Planning is a lot about making these kind of decisions. That's why you can't legislate in black and white." Ireland's planning system is also frequently criticised for considering all appeals, however spurious, kick-starting a process which can hold developments up for months or even years. "Objectors need to have planning rounds for an appeal but they'll find them base on traffic or something and it can delay development, there's no doubt about that," said O'Connor. "But that's part of the price you pay for having an appeal system. "We wouldn't want a situation where the board does something silly and tries to throw out some of these cases and then it goes to court - the developers are far worse off then because then it could be a year or two before it can be developed." |