TDs entitled to orders stopping use of car park

Independent TDs Luke “Ming” Flanagan and Finian McGrath are entitled to orders stopping any further use of a large split-level car park alleged to have caused “chaos” in Tuam town, to be a safety risk to local children, and to have adversely impacted on the medieval town’s architectural heritage, the High Court has ruled.

Mr Justice John Hedigan yesterday criticised the planning authorities over decisions relating to the car park beside the SuperValu in Tuam, noting the car park was one of eight unauthorised developments involving businessman Joseph O’Toole who had an “extraordinary planning history”.

Mr O’Toole has a “pattern” of constructing unauthorised developments and then seeking retention permission, the judge said. He had carried out eight unauthorised developments since 1996 and was the subject of six warning or enforcement notices but was “repeatedly” granted retention permission, most recently for much of the car park development.