Holiday homes may be demolished
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Anyone taking bets on what will happen? What will the Greens do?
KB2Holiday homes may be demolished
Michael ParsonsWed, Jun 27, 2007
Fifty-two holiday homes may have to be demolished because they do not comply with planning permission.
The two-storey houses, at an advanced stage of construction, are located on an elevated site in Co Tipperary close to the Rock of Cashel and the N8 Dublin-Cork road.
Work on the development stopped last month after planning officials from South Tipperary Co Council issued an enforcement notice against Liam Campion of Campion Construction Ltd, a company based at Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois.
Mr Campion was given a deadline of last Thursday, June 21st, to cease all development on the site, remove the 52 houses, and restore the land to its condition prior to the commencement of the development.
Planning official Marie McGivern said “the works had not been carried out in compliance with planning permission and the development was not in accordance with the drawings and detailed plans submitted by the developer”.
Council officials have visited the site and confirmed that work has stopped but the 52 houses have not been demolished.
The houses have been built on a 15-acre site at Ballypadeen, a townland situated one mile from Cashel town centre where Mr Campion has received planning permission to build an international trade centre, an international arbitration centre, a 120-room aparthotel (with restaurants, lounge bars, conference rooms, and swimming pools, 52 self-contained cottages and car park. The hotel, international trade and arbitration centres have not been built.
Planning permission was granted subject to more than 30 conditions – one of which specifically stated that “construction of the main hotel building shall be completed and the hotel shall be in operation prior to the occupation of any of the houses”.
This clause further stipulated that the houses “shall be used for purposes ancillary to the hotel only and shall not be used as places of permanent residence” and that “prior to the commencement of development, the developer shall submit for the approval of the planning authority full details of the proposed ownership arrangements and conditions of the houses”.
Mr Campion did not return calls from The Irish Times. A spokesman for his architects, Frank Ennis & Associates, of Blackrock, Co Dublin said: “Our client has technical issues to be resolved and is in discussions with South Tipperary County Council.”
In a report for An Bord Pleanála, Öznur Yücel-Finn, a senior planning inspector, described the location of the development as “one of the most sensitive locations – and not only in Co Tipperary”. The inspector added that the site is “highly visible” from the Rock of Cashel and concluded, “therefore I consider it highly inappropriate as a location for such a large development in terms of its impact on the visual amenities of the area”.
Meanwhile, community activists in Cashel are opposing plans for another hotel planned for the town centre. They want a park on the site instead.
Richard O’Brien of the “Save Our Town Park Committee” said the group is “writing to Minister for the Environment John Gormley to investigate this matter urgently”.
© 2007 The Irish Times
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delighted…. i hope he has to pull them down….
ive drven past there quite often and couldnt understand how those concrete boxes got permission…..
*edit*
whoever signed off the work to this stage is in it up to his/her neck!!!!!!
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Council goes to court to get holiday homes demolished
The Co. Council is now seeking a court date in the autumn for the prosecution its bringing against a building firm that has failed to comply with an order to demolish work completed on 52 holiday homes in view of the Rock of Cashel.
Liam Campion Construction of Borris-on-Ossory, Co. Laois is to be prosecuted in the district court for breaching the Planning & Development Acts of 2000 to 2006 for not fully complying with the enforcement order South Tipperary Co. Council issued in May.
The enforcement order was issued because according to the Council the developer contravened the conditions of the planning permission granted to the 52 houses at the prominent elevated site at Ballypaudeen, Cashel.
Substantial work has been completed on the holiday homes, which are part of a multi-million euro 120-bedroom hotel, conference and leisure centre planned for the site where the Cashel Kings Hotel and Tipperary Inn were formerly based.
A Co. Council spokesperson said Liam Campion Construction partially complied with the enforcement notice by stopping work on the site but nearly two months after the passing of the deadline for compliance, the company still had not moved to demolish the completed work on the holiday homes.
She confirmed there had been contact between the Council’s Planning Department and the contractor but the local authority had received no commitment as to when the company was going to comply fully with the enforcement notice.
The matter had now been referred to the Council’s solicitors, who were now seeking a date in the district court for the hearing of the prosecution.
The spokesperson said the Council expected to be able to bring the case to court in September or October.
16 August 2007Council putting 250 jobs at risk, says developer
A row over the threatened demolition of 52 holiday homes overlooking the Rock of Cashel in Co Tipperary escalated yesterday when the builder accused the county council of a “blunder” which is putting 250 jobs at risk.
Liam Campion, director of Campion Concrete Products Ltd, said a “grave error” by the planning authorities was jeopardising a €75 million project and had cost him millions of euro in tax breaks.
However, the county council, through its solicitor, vehemently denied his allegations.
The company had secured planning permission to build a 120-bedroom hotel and 52 holiday cottages at Ballypadeen outside Cashel. Mr Campion claims that some slight changes to the plans were agreed at a meeting with council officials last year which “were accepted as minor alterations and amendments, not requiring a fresh planning application”.
Construction commenced at the site and the 52 houses were built when planning inspectors decided that “the works had not been carried out in compliance with planning permission”.
In May, the council issued an enforcement order demanding that the company cease all development at the site, remove the 52 houses, and restore the land to its condition prior to the commencement of the development.
Mr Campion did not comply with the order and declined to comment to the media at the time. The council then commenced legal proceedings which are expected to come before the courts later this year.
Mr Campion broke his silence yesterday and said he is “dismayed and incensed over the local authority’s decision to try to force through the demolition of the houses”.
He said the development was being built in accordance with plans submitted and approved at a meeting with the planning department in July 2006.
“It is clear that an error has been made by South Tipperary County Council, and instead of admitting to this, they want to demolish the houses and restore the location to a greenfield site, which will bring an end to the entire project and deny a major economic boost for Cashel. “
According to Mr Campion, the project has the “capacity to create 150-plus direct jobs and 100 or more indirectly.”
Fred Binchy, a solicitor in Clonmel, whose firm acts for the council, said: “The county council planning office and its officers emphatically dispute any allegations or complaints made by the developer of any improper or unfair actions by it . . . with respect to this development”.
The 52 houses have been built on an elevated, 15-acre site where the Cashel Kings Hotel once stood and are visible to motorists on the N8 Dublin to Cork road.
Mr Campion had planning permission to build an international trade centre, an international arbitration centre, a 120-room aparthotel, 52 cottages and a car park. The hotel, trade and arbitration centres have not been built.
From ireland.com Friday, 7th September, 2007
This is turning into a right mess……… seems the council are standing firm on this, good on them, but i cant really see these units ever being demolished…..
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I think a few questions will be asked of the council’s procedures with dealing with approval of planning conditions, which from experience at the best of times can be abit hit and miss.
Regarding the development itself, it doesn’t reflect well on what the Planning Authority considers as good design, the fact that the particular bulky house designs were permitted at all.
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It would be a massive job to demolish these (horrible) buildings and the site would never return to its original state. Maybe if it was allowed to be completed, landscaped etc, it might look better? I’ve not seen the development for real so I dont know. Some sort of agreement, mitigating measure will surely have to be achieved between the developer and council. It seems the council is standing firm to cover up the embarassment of granting this in the first place.
oh and I agree Henno, someone is up the creek here, and the paddle shop is long closed!!!
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They shpuld be demolised without doubt. whats the point in having an enforcement system if it is not used. It seems to me that the developers were well aware of the conditions imposed but decided to ingnore them as they are fully aware that our enforcement system is lax and that they would never be required to demolish once the houses were in place.
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I found this in the local paper this morning
looks like it the houses may not be demolished after all, or at least for the foreseeable future, as the developer has indicated he intends to make a planning application for retention of the works to date.
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i hope then that the council stands firm over their conditions that the dwellings should not be finished until the hotelis complete.. and that the use of the dwellings shall be for the enjoyment of the hotel only.
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Jesus they’ve changed the lot!! That certainly sounds like they just plain ignored the planning permission. It should definately be torn down in principle, but the council should be very careful about granting these retentions/changes, seeing as what happened the first time they granted.
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http://constructireland.ie/myblog/index.php
retention has been granted for 32 of the 52 dwellings. The council have ordered the last 20 to be demolished, which the developer has appealed to the Bord.A developer who built holiday homes close to the Rock of Cashel has been granted “retention planning permission,” reports Michael Parsons in the Irish Times .
32 of the 52 houses are to be allowed while the remaining 20 are subject to a demolition order.
South Tipperary County Council has granted the permission despite having previously issued an enforcement order demanding that all of the houses be demolished and the land restored to its condition “prior to the commencement of the development”.
The builder, Liam Campion, has now lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála challenging the council’s decision to withhold retention permission for the remaining 20 houses.
His Co Laois-based company, Campion Concrete Products Ltd, got planning permission more than two years ago to build a 120- bedroom hotel, an “international trade centre” and 52 holiday cottages on an elevated site at Ballypadeen outside Cashel.
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Terrible. Is the retention also being appealed?
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Im not privy to the details but i would assume its just the particular condition requesting the demolition of the 20 dwellings that is being appealed.
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I mean has a third party appealed retention?
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nothing up on the Bord yet.
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