High rate of planning approvals in Mayo but councillors raise some issues with system
MAYO has a high rate of planning approvals and decisions being upheld by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Councillors have been briefed on the flow of how decisions are reached, and while there is general agreement that the system works well, a number of points were raised. They included the need for more localised decision making in municipal districts (MDs) and prior agreement being a must where residency clauses are imposed.
Members also raised the usefulness of having planning on the agenda at local authority meetings, as it was in the past, where they could raise issues with planners.
Director of services Catherine McConnell explained there is a specific planner in each MD. Their reports are assessed and counter-signed by a senior executive planner, with an agreed criteria on decision making.
Whether it comes before the MD head or goes to the director for decision depends on the size of the project. A housing project above five units goes to the director.
She made the point that Mayo has a high rate of planning approvals and decisions being upheld by the appeals board.
Councillor Peter Flynn said the majority of decisions and how it operates works very well. But there is a small number of cases where a planner does pre-planning, makes a recommendation, and instead of going to the MD head, a senior planner gets involved and overrules the planner in some situations. So when it gets to the head of MD, they are simply rubber-stamping what the senior planner has predetermined.
It wasn't helpful for the planners by involving another planner in the system and he recommended going back to the decision where a planner dealing with a file from the start would go straight to the MD head, rather than having this additional layer.
It's a small number of applications but they are an important cohort, he said. And he was sure there were cases where if the planner could work with the MD head, positive results would have issued.
Councillor Patsy O'Brien would say about planning, 'we always have to ask how can we achieve planning'. That is the most important part.
On one point, they needed to help people more to take out dereliction, he added, to achieve maximum benefit for people to address housing.
Councillor Richard Finn said power had been removed from the MD managers, reducing their authority to decide on projects up to 25 units down to five. He couldn't understand how this was allowed to happen, saying it had restricted the staff, management and councillors in the municipal areas.
Everything is going back to senior planners and is becoming centralised, he said.
A member of the Local Government Task Force, whose aims include devolution of power to MDs, Councillor Damien Ryan said it's past time the departments came with what functions they may be in a position to devolve to local authorities, meaningful functions, bringing power back to the people.
Councillor Johnny O'Malley said he would love to see planning back on the agenda, as it was in the past, so they could give planners information that would help with making decisions.
When it was on the agenda, the local councillor knew the situation and could put forward information, but that's not done now. Instead, when an application is refused they are asked to go in and explain the situation.
The point was made by Councillor Al McDonnell that where pre-planning is negative, those statistics are not included in the official statistics. He was convinced that planning refusal, including pre-planning consultations, is significantly greater than what is certified.
He was also concerned that in areas deemed under pressure, residency clauses are being included without prior agreement with the applicant. That was in their development plan, but it is not happening and is regularly included without agreement. And it needs to be addressed.
Erris Councillor Gerry Coyle again raised the issue of people having to prove they're from the area. People may have left, but their hearts were always there, he said.
The issue is, if refused planning, these people will then go and buy the first house they see in the area, making it more expensive for others to get homes.
Councillor Harry Barrett said it beholds them to make it as easy as possible for young people to get planning permission, saying the social fabric of the county needs to be front and central.
* Published under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme