Preamble & Objection 1: Invalid Application

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: NA800584 – An application for the construction of 498 houses at Balreask & Dufffsfland between Trim Road and Commons Road, Navan by McAlleer & Rushe.

Oh behalf of the residents of Balreask Manor (see attached list), we would like to lodge a submission on the application made by McAleer & Rushe for the construction of 498 houses at Balreask & Duffsland.

The portion of land outlined in the above application constitutes the first phase of housing as shown on the indicative layout, figure 13, in Local Area Plan 3, adopted by the Meath County Council on 24th of July 2006 last. The subject application relates to the development of lands immediately adjacent to and east of our housing estate. Obviously the large volume of housing proposed has the potential to impact greatly upon the residential amenity of our estate, as such we are calling on the Council to invalidate the application and if they consider the application valid, refuse the application.

In support of our call, we have a number of serious concerns, which we outline below:-


1. Invalid Application

We believe the application is invalid on a number of points:-

a) Planning regulations state in PART 4, Control of Development, Chapter 1, Section 17 (1) “An applicant shall within the period of 2 weeks before the making of a planning application – (a) give notice of the intention to make the application in a newspaper in accordance with article 18’’. The planning application is clearly stamped as date received 6th of March, yet the newspaper notice submitted by the developers was dated 8th of March, two days after the planning application was received, clearly this does not conform with the regulations or the act.

b) The applicant proposes to connect into the road network in Balreask Manor (see plans), this estate road stops short of the boundary hedge, as such the applicant will have to cross over open space, the section of open space is not in his control and is not included within the site boundary. Again there is a breach of regulations.

c) As part of this application, the developer proposed to construct a distributor road linking the Trim Road to the Commons Road, in regard to this road the applicant has included lands within the site boundary which are not in his ownership or control. Further there is no proof that he has the consent of the owners to include all of the lands in question in his application, again this issue renders the application invalid. Indeed in this regard there is no land holding map included with the application, showing the various land holdings along the route, with associated letters of consent.

We would have to contend, in the light of the above, that the Meath County Council were in error in validation this application and should have rejected same. We would point out to the council, that there are legal issues involved here which we believe could infringe our statutory rights, as such we must reserve our position in relation to this matter.