Top architect hits out at 'dysfunctional' planning system

The Irish planning system is dysfunctional and open to abuse, a leading architect claimed today.

In a scathing attack, James Pike used his inaugural speech as President of The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland to brand local council planners failures.

He attacked the inconsistencies in the planning process from county to county, and revealed architects run an annual prize for the most outrageous example of official incompetence.

In a hard hitting address likely to upset council chiefs, Mr Pike painted a picture of bumbling local planners up and down the country causing disarray in major development projects.

“I am aware of at least one recent example where a Local Area Plan is in place, but applicants have been told the water will not be available for at least 12 years,” he said.

“In other locations sewers are not planned, and in others surface water disposal or flood levels and policies for dealing with them are not undertaken which can lead to endless delays.”

He said there was enormous variations between planning authorities, which were behind the highest number of complaints in a recent survey of Irish architects.

While some councils operated relatively well, “others can only be described as dysfunctional,” he said.

“Such variations in performance and in how the planning laws and regulations are interpreted and applied means that the Irish planning system is potentially open to abuse.”

He continued: “Some local authorities with large numbers of applications validate nearly all applications from architects over the desk, while others take weeks, and reject applications for any fault, however petty.

“Some local authorities are readily accessible for enquiries and arrange meetings with applicants within one or two weeks, while others never agree to pre-planning application meetings and seldom make contact with applicants or their agents after an application has been submitted.”

He cited a number of examples where planning applications were rejected for apparently bizarre reasons, including one were the site notice was deemed to be the wrong colour.

In another case a planning application for a protected structure was declared invalid because a photographic record of the building did not form part of the application.

The planners returned nine copies of the photographic record to the applicant with the invalid application while retaining one copy for their files, according to Mr Pike.

“In fact, the Institute was informed of so many outrageous cases in relation to validation that they initiated a prize for the most bizarre case,” he said.

“In 2005, the winner reported a case where he received a planning invalidation because they did not write the word ‘dimension’ after each dimension noted on their drawings.”

He urged the Department of the Environment to compel council planners to use an agreed system and use architecturally-trained staff.