Teacher promises to level property 'uncomfortably close' to neighbour's home in Cork

Fiona McCarthy had turned an old derelict chalet into a property she hoped to lease out to holidaymakers

Ms McCarthy had pleaded guilty at a recent court sitting to failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued by Cork County Council with regard to the property. File picture: iStock

A woman convicted of failing to comply with an enforcement order from a county council over an unauthorised development has said she will knock it down.

Fiona McCarthy of Bawnlahan, Tragumna in Co. Cork had turned an old derelict chalet into a property she hoped to lease out to holidaymakers, in what a judge said was "a significant breach of the planning laws".

Ms McCarthy, a teacher, had pleaded guilty at a recent court sitting to failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued by Cork County Council with regard to the property.

Refusals of planning permission

Judge James McNulty had previously heard that Ms McCarthy had been refused retrospective planning permission by Cork County Council and then by An Bord Pleanála regarding the property, and was later turned down again when she applied for it to be used as a stores.

At an earlier sitting of the court her solicitor, Liam O'Donovan, said Ms McCarthy would be making a submission in a bid to avoid having the property demolished. But following her conviction at Skibbereen District Court, she said she would comply with the court's order that the structure be removed.

Judge McNulty recounted how the court had heard that Ms McCarthy had been gifted the property from her father, and without planning permission she had erected a dwelling on the site of the former chalet, leading to a formal complaint from a neighbour, with the development "uncomfortably close" to that neighbouring house.

On June 23, 2019, Cork County Council disagreed with her claim that she had simply repaired an existing cottage and asked her to remove the structure. Then followed the application for retention, which was the subject of an objection and turned down, a decision later upheld by An Bord Pleanála.

The enforcement notice from the local authority followed over the failure to comply, with the subsequent application to retain the structure as a stores also turned down. A summons was then issued by Cork County Council.

Judge's ruling

Judge McNulty remarked that some would call the structure in its original form a chalet, while others referred to it as a shack, but that it was clear its residential use "had long since ceased" by the time of the unauthorised development in 2019, and it had fallen into "disuse and dereliction". 

He said planning permission had been granted in 2000 to demolish it so as to relocate an access road, while Ms McCarthy had herself secured planning permission nearby for a separate property in 2010.

"The court notes that this property was built for holiday lettings," Judge McNulty said of the recent works. "It was done without planning permission by someone who should have known better."

He convicted Ms McCarthy on her guilty plea and after Mr O'Donovan said his client would comply with the order to remove the structure, including termination of electricity and other connections, he deferred the finalising of the order and the issue of penalty and costs until October 25 next.

"There was a significant breach of the planning laws here and a liberty was taken and it must be undone and matters put back to the way it was before," he said.