Local delight as fight against housing plan pays off
Local residents have successfully appealed against a decision of Kerry County Council last June, to grant planning to Glenloc Consulting Ltd for the development.
The proposal was to build 97 houses and apartments, with a creche, on a 4.7 hectare site about a half-kilometre from Killorglin, off the Iveragh Road.
Reasons for the refusal include the creation of traffic problems close to two bends and that the development would be in breach of the local area plan for Killorglin.
Senior planning inspector Ruairi Somers said the development would give rise to a “serious traffic hazard” especially in the absence of a footpath in the area.
Meanwhile, as controversy about planning for one-off houses in Kerry continues, a top planning officer said people were being refused permission for three reasons mainly.
They included effluent treatment, traffic safety and how a house could be integrated into the landscape, according to the county council’s director of planning services Michael McMahon.
However, he said all three areas could be dealt with during a pre-planning consultation service made available by the council.
Mr McMahon said many people were either not availing of the service, or ignoring its recommendations.
“While following recommendations is no guarantee of getting planning, people who engage in consultation and follow the recommendations are more likely to get permission,” he said.
Mr McMahon said people were spending a lot of money on applications that were turned down because they did not engage in consultations. He pointed out Kerry was the only county where on-site consultations were being offered to the sons and daughters of landowners looking to build on family land.
Councillors in Kerry claim planners’ interpretation of laws and guidelines is too restrictive and making it virtually impossible for young couples to get planning in the countryside.
But planning officials said more than 80% of applications in Kerry were granted — roughly in line with the national trend.
The Kerry branch of the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association, however, said the policy now was to try to locate as many people as possible in estates in towns around the county.
The association is to stage a protest outside a Kerry County Council meeting on April 21 next.
