An Bord Pleanála rules out oral hearing for Páirc Uí Chaoimh revamp plans

An Bord Pleanála has ruled out holding an oral hearing into the GAA’s controversial revamp plans for Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork.

An Bord Pleanála has ruled out holding an oral hearing into the GAA’s controversial revamp plans for Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh CTR, the company which runs the stadium, had requested an oral hearing of its appeal against Cork City Council’s decision last summer to refuse planning permission for the stadium project.

The plans included two controversial car parks on public land, a raft of interior changes to the stadium to facilitate better use of the facilities as a conference centre, a GAA museum and a visitor experience centre.

But city planners said the proposed car park sites are within an area designated to be part of the linear Marina Park, the first phase of which is set to open next week.

They said there was a presumption against developing land zoned for public open space, and they said the location of the car parks would severely limit the council’s ability to develop the large iconic public park as planned. There were also issues linked to the storage of floodwater.

In its appeal of that decision, the company request that An Bórd Pleanála hold an oral hearing into its application to allow all relevant issues to be discussed and examined because of the “complexity” of matters involved.

The appeal also included revised plans for consideration by the board, in the event, it upheld the city council’s planning decision. 

An Bord Pleanála's decision

However, in correspondence to the interested parties, the board has now said it has decided to determine the appeal without an oral hearing.

“The board has concluded that the appeal can be dealt with adequately through written procedures,” it said.

“The board has absolute discretion to hold an oral hearing and generally holds one where this will help its understanding of a particularly complex case or where it considers that, in a case involving significant national or local issues, the written submissions need to be supplemented by an oral hearing of the issues.

“Processing of the appeal will now continue and you will be notified of the Board's decision as soon as it is made.” 

A decision is due next February. Cork GAA spent around €100m redeveloping the stadium in 2017.