A Co Wicklow residents' association was ordered by the High Court yesterday to pay the costs of a challenge to a planning action which it lost in the courts but won before An Bord Pleanala.
Mr Justice Barr rejected an application by Delgany Area Residents' Association Ltd for an order to quash the granting of planning permission by Wicklow County Council to Avmark Ltd for a substantial housing development in Delgany.
In a reserved judgement, he said the issue in the case was whether there was evidence to establish that there was no real distinction between two separate applications by Avmark for planning permission for housing developments in Delgany.
He was satisfied that that was a matter for An Bord Pleanala, and the only course open to the residents' group was to appeal the council's permission - in relation to the second Avmark application - to An Bord Pleanala. He added that the controversy related to factual planning matters, the assessment of which was outside the competence and authority of the courts and was specifically within the ambit of Bord Pleanala.
However, after he had given his judgement, counsel for the residents' association said that a determination of the case had now been given by Bord Pleanala.