Woman avoids conviction for planning law breaches after agreeing to demolish holiday letting

A woman has avoided a conviction for breaches of the planning laws after she agreed to demolish a small timber shack that she had converted into a small dwelling for holiday lettings in a scenic area of west Cork.

Fiona McCarthy, a teacher from Bawnlahan, Tragumna, Skibbereen, was given the benefit of the Probation Act by Judge James McNulty at Skibbereen District Court today after the judge heard that she had complied with a court direction to demolish the unauthorised structure.

Ms McCarthy had pleaded guilty at a previous sitting of Skibbereen District Court to a breach of Section 154 of the Planning Act 2000, by failing to comply with an enforcement order from Cork County Council seeking that she remove the dwelling at Tragumna.

Judge McNulty had adjourned the matter to today’s hearing to see if Ms McCarthy had complied with his order to remove the structure which had been the subject of a complaint to Cork County Council by a neighbour who felt the dwelling was “uncomfortably close”.

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Barrister for Cork County Council, Donnchadh McCarthy confirmed to Judge McNulty that council planning inspector, Philip O’Sullivan had visited the site recently and found that Ms McCarthy had substantially complied with the order to demolish the structure.

“I’m happy to report that the property has been largely demolished — some timber decking remains to be removed and some grass reseeding needs to be done and Ms McCarthy has agreed and given an undertaking to carry out both those tasks,” he said.

Under the council’s enforcement notice, Ms McCarthy was required to demolish the property to ground level, remove all demolished waste and building matter from the unauthorised dwelling and remove the underground wastewater treatment tank and associated pipework.

Ms McCarthy’s solicitor, Liam O’Donovan, confirmed his client had given an undertaking to remove the timber decking and reseed the area and while he didn’t wish to revisit the nub of the case, there had been a structure there previously which Ms McCarthy felt exempted her from planning.

However, Judge McNulty said he had found there was a breach of planning and Ms McCarthy should have been familiar with the planning regulations in the area as planning had been obtained in 2000 to demolish the shack for an access road and she had secured planning in 2010 for a nearby house.

He had previously heard how on June 24th, 2019, Cork County Council disagreed with Ms McCarthy’s claim that she had simply repaired an existing cottage and asked her to remove the structure, but she applied for retention, which was refused, a decision upheld by An Bord Pleanála.

At that previous hearing, Mr McCarthy pointed out that the chalet had been increased in size from 30sq metres to 40sq metres while the new construction was also 1.5 metres taller than the original chalet which was just 2.5 metres from a neighbouring property.

Judge McNulty was shown photographs of how the shack appeared on the small parcel of land in October 2000 and a more recent photograph taken in July 2019 and he agreed that it showed a vastly different dwelling and was satisfied it constituted “a significant breach of the planning laws”.

Judge McNulty remarked that some could call the structure in its original form a chalet while others referred to it as a shack, but it was clear its residential use “had long since ceased” by the time of the unauthorised development in 2019 and it had fallen into “disuse and dereliction”.

“The court notes that this property was built for holiday lettings — it was done without planning permission by somebody who should have known better,” said Judge McNulty before adjourning the matter until today to allow Ms McCarthy the opportunity to remedy the situation.

On Tuesday, Mr O’Donovan said Ms McCarthy had been gifted the property by her father who had since died so in a sense she had inherited the problem though he conceded that she had exacerbated matters by failing to comply immediately with the council directive to demolish the structure.

Mr McCarthy BL said that the council had incurred certain costs and expenses, amounting to some €6,452, including costs incurred by Cork County Council’s Planning Dept amounting €609 and his instructions were to seek an order for costs.

Judge McNulty noted the application and observed that Ms McCarthy, a teacher, had suffered considerable embarrassment and ignominy by the matter being reported in both the local and national media and he had no doubt she had suffered some public opprobrium as a consequence.

He noted the offence carried a €5,000 fine and/or six months in jail but given Ms McCarthy had already suffered some ignominy, he was willing to spare her any penalty once she paid the costs which Mr O’Donovan said she would be happy to do and Judge McNulty applied the Probation Act.