'Egregious disregard for planning laws': Developer ordered to take down 29 modular homes

Judge references 1984 by George Orwell where people told 'to reject the evidence before your eyes'

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys presented two photographs — one of a mobile home and the other of a modular unit — noting that 'any reasonable person would plainly see that they are different structures'.

The High Court has ordered a developer to take down 29 modular homes that were built in a highly sensitive area and believed to have been earmarked for an IPAS centre.

A withering judgement described the unauthorised development in Wicklow as “a particularly egregious case of disregard for planning laws”, and referenced George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four where people were told “to reject the evidence before your eyes". 

The development was being constructed by a company run by developer Paddy Byrne, who had previously built an estate in Kildare that had major fire safety defects and had been accused by a bankruptcy official of trying to “cheat creditors”.

He was developing Chianti Park on a site formerly used as a mobile home park in an area zoned to “protect and enhance the outstanding natural character of the Dublin mountains area”.

The mobile home use dated back to the 1970s, but Byrne demolished the existing units, which had fallen into disrepair, and went on to lay foundations and construct a number of modular units on the site.

He argued that the construction of the modular units was exempt from planning permission on the basis that permission had previously been granted to the mobile home units.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys presented two photographs — one of a mobile home and the other of a modular unit — noting that “any reasonable person would plainly see that they are different structures”.

The type of structure that was previously located on the lands.

What is now on the lands – a completely different structure, a dwelling house.

Despite this, the case was made that they were identical, which the judge likened to “gaslighting on a monumental scale”.

The High Court heard that work did not cease after instructions from South Dublin County Council; instead, work accelerated until it was eventually halted by court order late last year.

Mr Justice Humphreys ruled that the developer had displayed “unbelievable chutzpah” in his handling of the matter.

The judge rejected a suggestion that any breach of the planning law was simply an innocent mistake.

“This is as far from innocence as you can get — this was an attempt to create a fait accompli with a view to turning around and defiantly asking the system, in effect, 'what are you going to do about it?'

"I suppose like many other people who defy planning law, the respondents are now going to find out,” said Mr Justice Humphreys.

Byrne was developing the site on behalf of the owners in his third development vehicle, Banarch Developments, following the bankruptcy and dissolution of the previous two. 

Last September, he wrote a personal letter to councillors pleading with them to allow him to proceed and denying that the site was being designed as an IPAS centre. 

A fire on the site that month was investigated by An Garda Síochána.

The High Court ruling confirmed an order issued by the Circuit Court last year after South Dublin County Council and a local resident brought action to halt the development and have it dismantled.

One of Byrne's previous projects was the construction of Millfield Manor in Newbridge, Co Kildare. In 2015 a fire that razed a terrace of homes in the estate prompted investigation that showed there were major fire defects present.