Planning permission has been granted by Mayo County Council for development on an 18th-century landscape lawn in front of the historic home of Grace O'Malley's descendants outside Castlebar.
A recommendation by the council's chief planning officer to refuse planning permission for a house was overruled and permission was granted on the instruction of the county manager, Mr Des Mahon.
The planning permission is for a house on the former lawn of a protected 18th-century house, Hawthorn Lodge, the ancestral home of the O'Malley family of Granuaile fame, a few miles outside Castlebar.
This is the third such application for a house on the site. The Irish Georgian Society, the former chair of English Heritage, Mr Thomas Radice, and the Heritage Council have lodged objections with the council.
In November the chief planning officer, Mr Ian Douglas, recommended that planning permission be refused. In April another planning officer, Ms Breda Gannon, wrote in a memo that the proposed design of the house was unsuitable in the location. A single-storey or dormer-type dwelling (i.e. single-storey in scale) would be more appropriate. Ms Gannon also agreed that permission should be refused.
Senator Paddy Burke (FG) has a note on file to the county manager saying that the proposed area of the house had been reduced from 3,900 sq ft to 2,990 sq ft and the height reduced to 6.6 metres. A dormer would be 6.5 metres high. He also indicated that "all houses on this road are two-storey".
Also on file is a letter from Patrick O'Grady Engineering Services in Castlebar outlining additional proposals to minimise the visual impact of the proposed development.
There is also an undated and unsigned planning decision recommending a refusal of planning permission for the site on file in the planning office.
However, a notice granting planning permission, with 17 conditions, was issued on May 24th. This bears the same planning register number, application-received date and validation date as the unsigned decision recommending a refusal.
A yellow sticker is also on file. It is initialled, dated April 28th, and addressed to Ms B. Gannon, SEP. It reads: "The Co Manager has indicated that considering the attached submission that [sic] permission should be granted in this case. You might please arrange."
The owners of Hawthorn Lodge, Anna and Philip O'Malley-Dunlop, have appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanala.