Mansfield admits building without full permission
The property developer acknowledged yesterday that he had “taken a risk” by starting work on the site without waiting for the statutory four-week waiting period for objections to An Bord Pleanála to elapse.
Mr Mansfield’s development company, HSS, was granted planning permission for the 5,900-seater centre by South Dublin County Council last November, despite objections by several State bodies including the Department of Environment, the National Roads Authority and the Dublin Transportation Office.
He confirmed he instructed work on the site to begin immediately as he was anxious that the building might be completed by next April so that it could possibly host some of the large meetings being held in Dublin as part of Ireland’s presidency of the EU.
“Technically, I suppose I was wrong,” said Mr Mansfield yesterday after arriving back from a business trip to the US. He explained he had felt reassured because he hadn’t heard of any objections to his plans at any stage for five weeks after permission was first granted.
The developer sees the new centre at Citywest in Saggart, Co Dublin as the first phase of a €800 million plan for the area.
“The existing conference centre can only cater for 4,000 people. It isn’t big enough for some of the people who want to host a conference in Ireland. The country is actually losing business by not having centres capable of hosting events for larger numbers of people,” said Mr Mansfield. However, he stressed he had no desire for his development to be considered as a site for the National Conference Centre.
It is understood some preliminary work on the roof and structure of the building continued last month after South Dublin County Council had issued HSS with an enforcement order to cease development on the site.
A spokesperson for An Taisce said it had lodged an appeal against the proposed centre on several grounds including the suitability of the location, traffic impact and the fact it was on a protected archaeological site. He also confirmed the local authority had failed to notify An Taisce, as obliged under law, of its decision to grant permission for the development.
Mr Mansfield accepted no further development would take place on the centre until An Bord Pleanála issued its ruling which is due in early April.
The current controversy represents just the latest chapter in a series of confrontations between Mr Mansfield and the planning authorities.
Planning permission for parts of his Citywest complex was acquired retrospectively, while South Dublin County Council took a High Court action against the developer last year amid claims of unauthorised development at the Weston Aerodrome in Lucan which he bought for €12.7 million two years ago.
Mr Mansfield also suffered a number of setbacks in recent months when An Bord Pleanála refused his application to build 83 golf apartments at Citywest on the basis that the proposed development contravened a green belt zoning, created a traffic hazard and did not provide adequate open space.
It came just weeks after the planning appeals authority issued a separate decision which restricted Mr Mansfield’s plans for further development at Weston Aerodrome. The board refused permission for the construction of five new hangars at the airfield, although it did allow for the demolition of an existing hangar to be replaced by a single building. The businessman had contended that his plans had constituted exempted development.
On a more positive note, the board cut planning levies of €1m imposed by South Dublin County Council to €70,000.
Asked about his checkered history with planning issues, Mr Mansfield insisted he always believed he had official permission for everything he had built, although he accepted the planning authorities might disagree.
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