Hearing told of `doubt' over Roadstone's title to land

The Wicklow county manager granted planning permission to Roadstone for quarrying at Glen Ding on the same day that the council was told there was a doubt over the company's ownership of part of the land.

Addressing a Bord Pleanala hearing in Wicklow yesterday, Mr Frank Corcoran of the Blessington Heritage Trust said Roadstone had submitted to the county council that it could access its quarrying activities through an 80-acre parcel of land adjacent to the N81 north of Blessington village and that lorries, therefore, would not have to travel through Blessington village.

However, Mr Corcoran said he was aware that the registered owner of the land indicated by Roadstone as the access route was the Department of Agriculture.

Mr Corcoran said that he had faxed this information to the county manager on December 19th last, the date on which, he was later surprised to learn, the manager, Mr Blaise Treacy, had granted the planning permission.

Mr Corcoran also told the inquiry that while Roadstone bought the land in the early 1970s for a sum of £150,000 in staged payments, the company and its solicitor could find receipts amounting to only £70,000.

He said that a letter from Coillte, the semi-State forestry board, confirming that no money was owed for the land, was not relevant as the land had never been in the possession of Coillte.

Mr Corcoran also questioned Wicklow County Council's senior executive planner, Mr Des O'Brien, as to why affidavits sent to the council, before its decision to grant planning permission, had not been given to planning staff.

The affidavits related to claims that two rights of way were established on the land as long ago as 1947 and 1950 respectively. Mr O'Brien said he had never seen the affidavits and so could not say how they would have affected his recommendation to grant planning permission.

Mr Corcoran reminded Mr O'Brien of Section 73.10 of the Roads Act 1993, requiring a local authority to protect the public access to rights of way.

He also argued that the only development plan extant was the 1989 Wicklow County Development Plan, under which the extension of quarrying at Glen Ding would be a material contravention.

Mr Corcoran also criticised the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) commissioned by Roadstone in so far as it relied on the national sites and monuments record which one of the country's foremost experts, Dr Eoin Grogan, of the Office of Public Works, had said was "incomplete".

For Wicklow County Council, Mr O'Brien said the details of the doubt raised over ownership of the land were received in the county law agent's office. These were not passed on to the county manager until after he had made his decision.

Similarly, the affidavits in relation to the alleged rights of way were handed to law staff and were never passed to the planning staff. "The county council is a very large and many-headed monster. If we had felt the issue was critical or pivotal we could have dug deeper. There is an old saying: `We are watchdogs, not bloodhounds'," he explained.

Summing up, Mr James Connolly SC said Mr Corcoran's approach was not appropriate and should not commend itself to An Bord Pleanala. "Scrutinising the approach of Wicklow County Council and the amount of information available to them is not appropriate," he said.

Mr Connolly also said that Roadstone had "a good marketable title to the land", a receipt for the last payment and a letter from Coillte supporting its case. These matters were a distraction and an attempt to slander Roadstone's title to the land, he maintained.