Board rejects plan for houses in Ballina

An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission for a controversial proposal to build two houses in Ballina.

Delivering its ruling earlier this month, the board agreed with Tipperary Co Council's view that the plan by Lough Derg Marina Ltd would be “overbearing” in the subject location at Cullenagh.

The council refused permission last year after receiving several objections to the plan from local residents.

Residents claimed that the proposed development would overlook adjoining property, leading to loss of light and privacy, impacting on amenity and devaluing their property.

Issues were also raised around lack of site services, of surface water drainage impacting on neighbouring properties, and of lack of parking provision.

The council ruled that the proposed development “would be overbearing and out of character with the established pattern of development in this area [and] would create an undesirable precedent for other similar development”.

Lough Derg Marina subsequently appealed the council's decision to An Bord Pleanála.

The Cullenagh Residents Committee, along with a number of individual residents, were observers in the case.

The applicant submitted revised drawings detailing a reduction in ridge height and a single vehicular access instead of two separate ones.

But An Bord Pleanála determined that the changes did not go far enough. It concluded: “Having regard to the location, scale and design of the proposed development, the sloping gradient of the site and the level difference to adjoining properties, it is considered that the proposed development would result in negative impacts on adjoining residential amenity by reason of overbearing, loss of privacy and associated residential privacy.”

The board considered that the proposal would be contrary to the Tipperary County Development Plan and therefore contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.