O’Flynn challenges Dublin planning refusal in High Court

Developer Michael O'Flynn is challenging Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's refusal to grant planning permission to build 164 houses in south Dublin in the High Court.

O'Flynn Capital Partners, a company chaired by Mr O'Flynn, has brought judicial review proceedings against the local authority's refusal to give the go ahead to development at Beech Park, Bray Road, Cabinteely, Co Dublin, which is close to the N11 dual carriageway.

The proposed development involves the construction of 164 residential units and the demolition of 11 existing units on a 5.3 hectare site. It also involves the construction of a roadway, known as the Druid Glen Road, which will link up with the N11.

O’Flynn Capital Partners will ask for declarations from the court including the quashing of the council’s refusal. The developer also wants an order remitting the county council’s decision to be referred back to it for further consideration.

Mr O’Flynn told the court in an affidavit that he was concerned with the manner in which the council dealt with his planning application.

In the High Court Thursday, barrister Rory Mulcahy SC, for Mr O’Flynn’s company, said that on July 31st last planning permission had been refused for several reasons.

The local authority had claimed the proposed development had not given sufficient regard the local Cherrywood Planning Scheme, which formed part of a government designated Strategic Development Zone where only specified types of development was permitted.

Mr Mulcahy said part of the proposed new road cuts through the Cherrywood Planning Scheme area. The O’Flynn company did not own all of the lands over which the proposed road was planned.

Counsel said it was the company’s case that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had erred in law in its interpretation of the planning scheme and the company rejected the suggestion that its proposal was not consistent with the scheme.

Mr Mulcahy said there was no appeal to An Bórd Pleanála available to the developer in a situation where a planning authority made a finding that an application contravened such a scheme.

He said other reasons related to flood risk assessment and design, and the contention that the proposed development would adversely affect the use of the N11.

Permission to bring the judicial review proceedings was granted, on an ex-parte basis, by Mr Justice Anthony Hunt, who made the action returnable to a date in November.