Congratulations are due to Abbey Park and District Residents Association for yet again standing up for proper planning and sustainable development in their area. Their Judicial Review challenge to a permission for an 11 storey residential tower beside Stapolin Educate Together National School has been successful. The application was refused by Fingal County Council but that refusal was overturned by An Bord Pleánala (ABP, now An Coimisiún Pleanála, ACP) on appeal.

In the High Court, Holland J ruled that ABP had failed to address the inadequate playground provision, which was a material contravention of the Fingal Development Plan. The file has been remitted to ACP for decision, with the assistance of the Judge’s observations on a number of the other grounds in the judicial review challenge, on which he did not make findings.

The judgement will be of particular general value in reminding planning authorities of something surprisingly contested by ACP in the hearing, i.e. that they have “a duty to seek to protect the residential conditions and amenities…of those, usually as yet unidentified or unidentifiable, who will live in the dwellings proposed” and in reminding them that [w]hile opposed planning applications are in practice considerably adversarial, they are primarily inquisitorial processes.”