Hurler's half-built home may be torn down

A YOUNG Kerry hurler may have to demolish the walls of a €180,000 house he started to build without planning permission in a scenic area.

An application by 24-year-old Jim Wharton to build a dormer house on his own family farm, at Templenoe, Kenmare, was twice turned down by Kerry County Council.

After the first refusal in January 2000, he appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, whose inspector recommended that permission be granted subject to conditions.

On this basis, and without waiting for Bord Pleanála's decision, Mr Wharton started building on the site. However, Bord Pleanála did not accept its inspector's report and also refused permission.

The walls of the house are now up to first-floor level and, at the Circuit Court in Killarney, yesterday, the council sought an order to have the entire structure removed from the site overlooking the Kenmare River.

Barrister Joe Revington, for Mr Wharton, said the site in question was the only place on which he could build.

Mr Revington claimed the council was using a bulldozer to crack a nut and "wanted to bury" Mr Wharton.

"I'm asking the council to go back and talk to my client," he added.

Judge Sean O'Leary adjourned the case to next March, pointing out that members of the council were entitled to move a Section 140 motion to give Mr Wharton planning permission, if they wished.

"If nothing happens in the meantime, I will order the buildings to be taken down, but I'm not going to get in the way of councillors exercising their rights," he said.

However, three councillors - Michael Connor-Scarteen, PJ Donovan and Michael Healy-Rae - who already tried to move a Section 140 motion, were advised against doing so by the county solicitor.

They withdrew the motion when told it could prejudice the council's proceedings against Mr Wharton, that they might be in contempt and that they could be surcharged.

Speaking after yesterday's hearing Mr Wharton, who runs a fish and chip shop in Kenmare, said he is now pinning his hopes on the councillors passing a Section 140 motion.

"At the moment, I'm living in a rented house in Kenmare with my fiancée, Susan Lynch, and two-and-a-half-year-old son Griffin. Our rented accommodation is not the most suitable and we're most anxious to get on with building our own house," he said.

He also said no one in the area was objecting to his planning application, adding his application for retention, currently under consideration by the council, incorporated the recommendations of the Bord Pleanála inspector.

The council initially turned down the application because it would seriously scar the landscape of a scenic area and would be contrary to the County Development Plan.

Mr Wharton's engineer, Paudie O'Mahoney, of Killarney, said he had a strong case for planning from a human point of view.

This is the second planning case from the Kenmare area to come before the courts. A ruling is awaited from the Supreme Court in a case involving Kevin Lovett, who claimed he had permission to build a 100,000 dormer house at Bonane, Kenmare.

The legal point to be decided is whether the planning permission dated from the time a Section 4 motion was passed, on June 19, 2000, or from the time County Manager Martin Nolan signed the order giving permission, on July 21, 2000.

The council argues that as Mr Lovett started building prior the manager signing the order, he did not have permission.