An Taisce hits out at planning notice delay

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Written by Deirdre O'Shaughnessy

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

An Taisce has hit out at the City Council for what it sees as the council’s failure to notify it of planned developments.

The heritage group says it is not being notified of impending developments at a sufficiently early stage in the planning process.

In a letter to the City Council, An Taisce Galway, represented by Derrick Hambleton, complained that the City Council had not notified it of a development on Nun’s Island Street, as it was legally obliged to do. Under the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, local authorities must refer applications directly to An Taisce enabling it to make a submission.

However, An Taisce took issue with the fact that this procedure was not followed with regard to the Nun’s Island development, or, it alleges, in relation to several others.

In a letter to the City Council’s Head of Planning, Mr Hambleton said, “It has become noticeable over recent months that such delays are becoming common. If An Taisce’s place as the country’s only heritage NGO taking an active interest in planning matters where protected structures are under threat, is concerned is being denied the time to make properly well researched submissions, then the public are being in effect excluded. It is long past time that the executive of Galway City Council did something to correct this imbalance in the planning process in Galway.”

In response to the complaint, Tom Conlan, Director of Planning with Galway City Council, said, “Galway City Council is in the process of reviewing its Customer Care Plan and as part of that the planning concerns raised by An Taisce will be addressed, namely the notification of statutory bodies in relation to the lodgement of planning applications.”

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