Planning board drops defence of case taken against granting of permission to build telecommunications mast

Eir — the original applicants for the mast itself — asked that the application be remitted to the board once more, meaning the entire case will be considered on its merits for a second time once the original decision is quashed.

Planning body An Coimisiún Pleanála has dropped its defence of a legal case taken against the granting of permission to build a telecommunications mast in Co Kilkenny after a four-year battle.

The planning authority told Peter Thomson, the Kilkenny man who took the case against the initial June 2021 decision, it would no longer be opposing the quashing of the original decision made by its former deputy chair Paul Hyde for several reasons — but denied it now accepted that bias in its decision-making had been a factor.