OLG Judicial Review – Judgement Given

On 10th March, Judge Garrett Simons delivered his judgment following the Judicial Review hearing that took place on 19th, 20th, and 21st February in the High Court. This case was taken by a local resident, and member of the Roebuck Residents’ Association, Michael Redmond. He took the case without legal representation, due to the costs involved.

The Judicial Review was successful, the judge ordered: “The decision to grant planning permission is invalid and an order of certiorari will be made setting aside An Bord Pleanala’s decision of 15 August 2019”.

This means that the planning permission to build 132 units at Our Lady’s Grove campus is quashed, and the decision has been declared invalid by the High Court.

Roebuck Residents’ Association welcomes this ruling, and sees it as a vindication of the democratic process that has been compromised by the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process. The judgement respects Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s conclusion that planning permission for this development ought to have been refused. It also respects the views of two local Residents’ Associations, many local residents, and parents of children attending the schools on the campus, that the scale and composition of this development were inappropriate for the school campus site.

The Association welcomes the fact that the “Institutional Objective” attached to the zoning of this site has been clarified and strengthened by Judge Simons’ ruling. Any future planning application for this site will now have to accommodate adequate public open space (25% of the campus site), which can be used by the schools and child care facility located on the campus site, as well as by the local community. By our calculations, an extra 2.32 acres will be available. It also means the other provisions attached to the “Institutional Objective” must apply. These are: appropriate density (35-50ha), tree protection and maintaintenance of the open character of the lands, and retention of sufficient space for the expansion of the schools in adjacent land. This ruling will have implications for all other (approx.) 47 sites with an “Institutional Objective” in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

We wish to note that Mr. Michael Redmond, the local resident who took this case, did so without legal representation, due to the substantial costs involved. We applaud his extremely impressive achievement , and we offer our sincere thanks and gratitude to him for all his hard work, and for representing the local community so ably.