Cork County Council seeks legal advice over minister's directive on development plan

The Mayor of County Cork said people in Bantry are “crying out for housing” and a “minister from Mullingar” shouldn’t be interfering in local government decisions

The council now faces having to reverse decisions affecting its future zoning plans for the Fermoy, Carrigtwohill and Bantry areas, unless it goes down the legal route. File picture: Larry Cummins

Cork County Council is to seek legal advice on the possibility of a mounting court action against directives from a junior minister to make changes to the County Development Plan.

The council won two High Court cases against a previous directive from Local Government Minister Peter Burke, acting on the advice of the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR), against the local authority’s plan for the creation of a €100m Kildare Village-type retail centre in Carrigtwohill.

However, the council now faces having to reverse decisions affecting its future zoning plans for the Fermoy, Carrigtwohill and Bantry areas, unless it goes down the legal route.

Mr Burke, on the advice of the OPR, instructed the council not to turn green belt land in Fermoy into an industrial site, not to use land in Bantry for the construction of new homes, and he is imposing high-density housing on sites in Carrigtwohill which the local authority had designated as medium density.

Councillors have reacted furiously to the interference, saying it curbs their autonomy to plan for future development in their own areas.

They are also going to contact the national bodies representing councillors – the Association of Irish Local Authorities (AIGL) and Local Authority Members’ Association (LAMA) – to seek financial support to mount an overall case for all councils in the country which are facing similar OPR/ministerial directives overturning their planning decisions.

Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Danny Collins, said people in Bantry are “crying out for housing” and a “minister from Mullingar” shouldn’t be interfering in local government decisions.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Patrick Gerard Murphy, said all available land in Bantry at present is being taken up for voluntary housing and social housing projects. He said the land the council had designated was to be used for affordable housing, but now it will have to revert back to agricultural zoning.

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Councillors representing the Carrigtwohill area expressed their concern over the designation of high-density housing (50-plus units per hectare) being imposed by the ministerial directive.

Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said such proposed growth in his home town isn’t being matched by social infrastructure improvements, adding it is unsustainable and locals do not want it either. “We seriously need to take legal direction on where we can go with this,” he said.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Gilian Coughlan, who lives in Bandon, said future generations would not thank them when they are short of the schools and creches needed to support such high-density development.

Councillors representing the Fermoy area also expressed anger at two directives which will stop the creation of a new industrial estate and the construction of a HGV NCT centre from going ahead at Corrin, to the south of Fermoy and just a few hundred metres from the M8 motorway.

They said three companies located in the immediate area want to expand their operations into a new industrial centre proposed there. Fianna Fáil councillor, Frank O’Flynn, got almost unanimous support from fellow councillors to seek a judicial review of the ministerial order impacting the plans the council has for there, Carrigtwohill and Bantry.

Council chief Tim Lucey said he would seek legal advice and report back to councillors once he had obtained it.