Category: Planning

Greens table motion to condemn corruption

I think if the Greens should be doing more than condemning corruption that happened in the past, they should be asking what corruption is happening right now.

The Green Party is to bring a private members’ motion before the Dail condemning corruption in the planning process.

The motion condemns those parties that have failed to discipline their members for what it describes as “their collective amnesia” with regard to monies received from developers.

It also “deplores the culture of alleged corrupt planning and rezoning that has resulted in urban sprawl, where schools, playgrounds, local jobs and public transport were not provided in tandem with housing.

Party leader Trevor Sargent claimed corruption in planning had created hundreds of thousands of victims.

“These victims are mainly ordinary taxpayers fleeced by the big developer friends of ‘Bertie the Builder’,” he claimed.

Rezoning vote may have breached ethics

It looks like Killarney may be having second thoughts about their rezoning, it may breach ethics guidelines:

The ethics registrar for local authorities in Kerry, John Flynn, has written to the Killarney town manager and mayor informing them of “a possible contravention” of the Local Government Act in relation to recent rezoning of land around the Gleneagle Hotel.

Fianna Fail mayor Cllr Tom Doherty confirmed yesterday he had received the letter relating to FF councillor Patrick O’Donoghue, managing director of the Gleneagle Group and a Failte Ireland director, and Fine Gael councillor Sheila Casey, an employee of the Gleneagle Group.

He said he was unsure of the exact procedure to be followed but would be consulting the Local Government Act and other relevant legislation as well as town council officials.

At the March monthly meeting, councillors voted by a majority to rezone the Gleneagle lands to town centre use against the advice of planners who warned it would change the whole balance of the town and fly in the face of existing plans. Just two councillors voted against the rezoning and the mayor abstained.

Cllr O’Donoghue declared his interest in the matter and abstained from discussion and from the votes on the motion to rezone his family lands. However, he remained at his seat in the council chamber throughout.

One councillor told the meeting he had been invited to a meeting by Cllr O’Donoghue in the latter’s “capacity as manager of the complex” to discuss the issue.

Cllr Casey was one of five councillors to sign the rezoning motion and she voted in favour of it. Under the Local Government Act 2001, councillors are obliged to disclose the nature of an interest, and to withdraw altogether from a meeting during the discussion. They are also asked to refrain from seeking to influence a decision which is of benefit to them.

The Code of Conduct for Councillors, issued in June 2004 to supplement the Act, says councillors should be especially careful of conflict of interest in planning matters.

It says the test to be applied by a councillor in a possible conflict of interest is whether a member of the public “would reasonably think that the interest concerned might influence the person in the performance of his or her functions”. It adds: “It is important to ensure as well as the avoidance of actual impropriety, occasions for suspicion and appearance of improper conduct are also avoided in case of private or personal interests.”

The manager and mayor of Killarney will have to decide if an investigation is to take place. Breach of the ethics legislation can result in disciplinary action, prosecution in the courts and, on conviction, fines of €1,500 and disqualification from the council.

Ahern associates to give evidence

Paul Cullen tells us that:

Two of the Taoiseach’s long-time associates are to give evidence in a new module of the planning tribunal to start today.

Robert White, who went to school with Bertie Ahern, and Tim Collins, one of the trustees of his Drumcondra office, are scheduled to give evidence about a planning issue in Swords.

Former Government press secretary Frank Dunlop alleges Mr White paid him £5,000 to lobby county councillors for the construction of a hotel on the land.

Mr Dunlop claims he gave Fianna Fail county councillor Cyril Gallagher £2,000 in the Grand Hotel in Malahide in the early 1990s for his support.

He says Mr White told him he had discussed the matter with Mr Gallagher and local TD GV Wright. Mr White and Mr Wright deny any impropriety, while Mr Gallagher died in 2000.

The land was owned by the Duff family but Mr White, a jeweller and property developer, represented a consortium, Nosaka Ltd, formed to develop the hotel.

Cross-examination of Mr Dunlop on the Ballycullen rezoning in south Dublin is due to finish today, bringing that module to a close. In the afternoon, he will give evidence in the new module on the Duff lands.

Mr White was involved in a controversial attempt to build a casino and conference centre on the disused Phoenix Park racecourse in the mid-1990s. An Bord Pleanala gave the £375 million project the go-ahead but it foundered when politicians refused to sanction a casino licence. Having bought the site in 1993 for £10 million, Mr Turner and his business partner sold it in 1998 for £35 million to a firm of housebuilders.

In 2000, another associate of Mr Ahern’s, Des Richardson, said he had been approached by a director of the project – understood to be Mr White – to ask Liam Lawlor to act as a consultant. At the time, Mr Lawlor claimed he had been offered £100,000 to lobby for the project.

Mr Collins’ involvement in the Duff lands is unclear, but he has acted as an intermediary between Mr Dunlop and developers in other developments.

Separately, the tribunal is investigating the acquisition by the State of the Battle of the Boyne site in Co Meath from a company in which Mr Collins was involved. In 2000, the OPW paid £9.4 million for the site acquired by Mr Collins and his partners for £3.43 million three years earlier. Mr Collins was also present at a meeting between the Taoiseach and developer Tom Gilmartin in 1988.

The Duff module is expected to last just a few days.

Cyril Gallagher's counsel denies bribery allegation

Frank Dunlop alleges that he gave north Dublin counsellor Cyril Gallagher (deceased), £18,000 between 1991 and 1993 in return for rezonings around Swords. His counsel argue that there is no documentary evidence. If they were corrupt payments there is bound to be no documentary evidence, it was in cash allegedly.

Mr Montgomery said Mr Dunlop was completely wrong; Mr Gallagher had not asked for the money and it was not given. It was Mr Dunlop’s word against Mr Gallagher’s, and Mr Gallagher was dead.

Mr Dunlop said he rejected this. It was sad that Mr Gallagher was dead. He had attended his funeral. The money he gave Mr Gallagher paled into insignificance in comparison to what others got and he had made far greater allegations against councillors who were still alive.

The tribunal is investigating claims by Mr Dunlop that a landowner, Robert White, paid him £5,000 in the early 1990s to keep certain councillors “onside” for an application to build houses on agricultural land owned by the Duff family.

Mr White acknowledges paying Mr Dunlop £2,500 by cheque for public relations work but denies asking the lobbyist to influence councillors.

Yesterday, it emerged that Mr Dunlop alleges he paid Mr Gallagher a total of £18,000 between 1991 and 1993 in return for his support for various rezonings.

He said Mr Gallagher knew Swords like the back of his hand and had a good idea of what could be done and what could not in planning terms.

Gallagher noted before he died:

Mr Gallagher, who died in March 2000, said in a statement to the tribunal the previous year that the most he ever received from Mr Dunlop was £300 in election support or contributions and added that was if he did get it.

Killarney councillors vote for rezoning

Kerry, the home of councils over-ruling the decisions of planners, has yet again shown just how little say planners have. Prima facia this rezoning warrants some investigation. Emphasis is added in all cases.

Killarney Town Council has voted to rezone 20 acres around the Gleneagle Hotel for town-centre development against the advice of planners.

Fianna Fail councillor Patrick O’Donoghue, who is also managing director of the Gleneagle Hotel Group, which he owns with his family, confirmed after the meeting that he had lobbied support for the motion. Cllr O’Donoghue is also a director of Failte Ireland.

Yes, it is funny isn’t it. It’s not just Fianna Fail though.

Fine Gael councillor Sheila Casey, who voted for the rezoning and was one of the proposers of the motion, is an employee of the Gleneagle Group.

Yesterday Ms Casey said the idea of any conflict of interest had not occurred to her.

And what are the planners saying about all this?

The town planner and town clerk told the meeting they had no objection to the proposed regularisation of the site for tourism-related facilities, which they felt was “an appropriate designation”.

But they pleaded with councillors not to dilute the core objective of current town plans and that the proposal would effectively attach a town-centre zoning to the site.

“The executive are strongly opposed to the application of associated town-centre facilities to the proposed rezoning as it will effectively attach a town-centre zoning to the site,” executive planner Fiona O’Sullivan said.

Ms O’Sullivan outlined up to 20 uses permitted by a tourism facilities designation including a museum, neighbourhood retail, outdoor and indoor leisure and conference facilities as a more appropriate zoning.

Under town-centre zoning, retail apartments, offices, residential and financial institutions as well as high-density housing and a complete mix of uses would be allowed, she added.

Fianna Fa¡il councillor Brian O’Leary, supporting the town-centre zoning for the hotel, said the large land bank belonged to people well known for developing tourism in Killarney.

Does anyone think it odd that a man who will materially benefit from a rezoning is voting on that rezoning, and that the rezoning is against the advice of the town planner? Can anyone see a conflict of interest there?

And this is, as far as I can tell, happening all over the country. Maybe we will read about in a Tribunal in 20 years time.

Developers gave councillor £9,000

The Irish Times reports from the Mahon Tribunal:

Developers gave a former Democratic Left county councillor £9,000 for charity after South Dublin County Council gave them the go-ahead to build extra houses on rezoned land, the tribunal has heard.

Tallaght councillor Michael Billane voted in February 1996 to increase from 360 to 600 the number of houses Ballycullen Farms could build on their land. The change, a material contravention of the local plan requiring a 75 per cent majority of councillors, added £2.1 million to the value of their south Dublin land.

It continues:

Judge Mary Faherty said Mr Billane had voted against building 360 houses on the land in 1993 and then, more than two years later, he had voted in favour of 600 houses. She asked what had prompted his “quantum leap”.

Mr Billane said the original proposal would see millionaire’s houses built on the land, while the increase in density would provide more affordable housing and more employment for building workers.

A ‘quantum leap’ about sums it up.

Kitt forgot to inform tribunal of over £3,000 in donations

More amnesia at the Mahon Tribunal.

Government chief whip Tom Kitt forgot to tell the tribunal about more than £3,000 in donations from landowner Christopher Jones, it emerged yesterday.

Mr Kitt, who is still trying to establish with his bank how much he got from Mr Jones, yesterday admitted his initial response to tribunal inquiries wasn’t as comprehensive as it should have been.

Last month, he wrote to the tribunal acknowledging he got a £500 donation from Mr Jones in 1991, according to senior counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon. He also said he received £800from an employee of Mr Jones, Frank Brooks, at a golf classic last year.

But Ms Dillon said this did not represent all the payments Mr Kitt received from Mr Jones. The tribunal had sent him financial records, including copies of cheques, for three other payments, for £2,000 in 1992, £500 in 1992 and €650 in 2002.

Mr Kitt had then replied saying he had no specific recollection of these cheques.

Due to pressure of work, his response to the tribunal letter hadn’t been as comprehensive as it ought to have been, he said.

He was on the radio yesterday too:

He blamed the omission on poor records that he kept at the time. He said he was “annoyed” that he had not been able to recall the donation, but was happy to clarify the situation at the tribunal yesterday.

'Paltry' fund for planning enforcement criticised

Need to build something? Just do it and seek retention, it could be a decade before it’s investigated.

Currently, 85 per cent of retention applications are granted by the council, providing little incentive to developers to follow the law and wait for planning permission to be granted before they start work.

The backlog of cases means that it could be several years before a developer has to worry about unauthorised structures, Ms Creighton said.

She is calling on the council to increase its enforcement budget to 40 per cent. “Enforcement is a critical aspect of proper planning,” she said.

The council said that its enforcement budget for this year represented an increase of almost 5 per cent on last year.

“The budget is adequate to meet the needs of enforcement in the planning department’s opinion,” a spokesman said.

'Wild West' Planning

On January 26th, I wrote about the “cowboy culture’ that passes for good planning in modern Ireland. A report on RTEs News at One (Regional news) last Wednesday serves as a perfect example of how this sort of thing is done in ‘Wild West’ Ireland.

This little gem was actually reported on this blog way back in November. Apparently, a section of a public park in the middle of Limerick city, which was given to the people of Limerick in perpetuity by the Pery family, Earls of Limerick in 1877 was sold to a developer by Limerick City Council.

The People’s Park, which the Pery family intended to be used exclusively as a public amenity for the people of Limerick, now has 59 apartments, shops and a car park. According to the report, the development has ruined the people’s enjoyment and privacy in the park.

The obvious question is, of course, how could Limerick City Council, one of the trustees of the land, get away with this outrage? It’s not as if it could have been done in the dead of night when no one was watching. Have a look here at the requirements for a valid planning application.

So who benefited from this little bit of roguery? Well, the developers, of course but who else? How was it possible for the developer to get all this building done on publicly owned property without any questions being asked?

The Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche has been asked to look into the matter to see if any Dept of Finance or EU rules were broken.

To save readers the bother of tracking this particular piece of dodgy dealing, here’s what’s going to happen. If the minister actually bothers investigating the matter and concludes that the development was illegal, it is likely the developer will be asked if he wouldn’t mind applying for retrospective planning – and that will be the end of the matter.

Cowboy planning culture

Last Friday, RTEs Five Seven Live programme reported on the “Cowboy culture’ that passes for good planning in Ireland.

Apparently, the vast majority of illegal developments are granted retrospective planning by local authorities. In the last four years Dublin City Council has given retrospective planning permission to 85% of those who couldn’t be bothered applying before they started building. The figures for Waterford and Galway are 83% and 82% respectively.

A significant number of offenders are developers, who are very familiar with planning laws, rampaging around the country, building hundreds of houses and then looking for, and getting, planning permission.

But then again, they are taking their example from our so-called leaders. In today’s Irish Times we read that former Fianna Fail minister of state, Ivor Calley is in breach of planning laws for converting a garage into a house next to his family’s holiday home which (hilariously) was also built without permission.

We can only guess what future generations will make of the massive damage done by this rampant gombeenism.