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A LARGE RESIDENTIAL development in Kildare from the brothers behind one of Ireland’s biggest construction firms has been refused planning permission by the local council.
Last year, Cowlara Limited lodged a planning application with Kildare County Council for mixed-use development that included the construction of 220 houses on a site just outside Newbridge. This number was later revised down to 183 houses.
The company behind the project is headed up by brothers Jim and Stephen Bennett, who also own Bennett Construction – one of the largest development firms in Ireland, with turnover of €131 million last year.
Bennett Construction has previously been involved in projects that include the Helix venue at Dublin City University and Penneys-Primark’s international headquarters in the capital.
Plans for the development in Kildare were first submitted in March last year. However, the initial application was withdrawn and a different submission was lodged in June 2016.
The homes proposed are a mix of terraced, semi-detached and detached houses between one- and two-storeys in height. The current plans for the Newbridge site also include the construction of a 120-bed nursing home and crèche.
The development also included plans to construct a new link road to Standhouse Road and create vehicle access to Ballymany Road.
Following a request for further information by the council, the developers revised their plans and reduced the number of houses proposed for the site from 220 to 183. The scale of the nursing home was also reduced.
Despite the revisions, planning permission for the project was refused on the grounds that future traffic emerging from the mixed-use development would be a “hazard” and disrupt a main road leading into Newbridge.
The council also noted that a report identified the site as an area with “archaeological potential” and any development on the land would negatively affect heritage in Newbridge.
Appeal
Cowlara Limited has since appealed Kildare council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála.
In its initial submission, the developers said that the project would bring benefits to the area through employment opportunities and economic activity.
The Kildare town is classed as a ‘large growth town’ under planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area.
Newbridge is located an hour outside Dublin city centre and serves as a commuter town for the Irish capital, which is being severely affected by a housing shortage.
Significant new investment in housing has been identified as a key objective for ‘large growth towns’ – such as Newbridge – in planning policy, and the developers noted that this project would help the Kildare town achieve its housing objective.
Its planning submission said: “Not only is the proposed development in keeping with current settlement policy, but it will make efficient and economic use for zoned and serviced lands.”
This case is due to be decided by 13 December.
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Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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Guess they forgot the brown envelope.
Guess someone didn’t bend the knee
Funny enough most of the new homeless don’t want to be in the commuter belt. They only want to be homed in Dublin so they can be near the ma. After all it’s just country people who must move to work and fend for themselves not these people tough
@Mary Murphy: That’s why the country buses and trains are full every weekend,going home for the bacon and cabbage.
@Mary Murphy: so Mary, you are implying that all homeless people are originally from Dublin?
I don’t know newbridge so I have no idea if this development is a good idea or not but surely the real problem is the fact it was lodged in March 2016 and the final decision isn’t due until at least Christmas! There could also be a judicial review after that.
In Germany you can go from planning application to building works in six months.
@P.J. Nolan: have you ever tried ringing someone in the councils or even getting response to an e mail? Useless bunch of layabouts
@Rusty Nuts:
Been there, done that, built the extension (eventually!)
@P.J. Nolan:
You can go from lodging a planning application to construction in 14 weeks in Ireland, if all is in order. 12 weeks for the planning and 2 weeks for your commencement notice.
@Murray Osborne:
And how many actually manage that?
Almost all first applications get sent back for “more information” , personally i believe they turn most people down in the hope they won’t come back! I have been at planning meetings where the planning officer asked the builder to change it down to a bungalow so it would be ” In keeping with it’s surroundings” and it was in a sea of two storey houses… He was turning it down but actually had no idea where it was.
This is the problem, we don’t have the infrastructure for such large new developments. They need to either incentivise all the empty properties to become available or put together a holistic plan for large scale new developments in tandem with infrastructure projects. As this is Ireland however we’ll wait til it reaches crisis point then let any old clown become a developer and build thousands of death traps with no regard for traffic.
@The Guru: looking at the artist impression of the houses, could you point out the death traps.
@The Guru: crisis point is well and truly here
@Jeremy Hurley: you think you can tell from looking at an artist’s impression? You should get a job with the council.
@The Guru: you’ll be the same gobsh*te complaining there isn’t enough houses being built to address the housing crisis
@Captain kirk: there isn’t enough houses being built. That doesn’t mean we should be building absolutely anything with no regard for the consequences. Not that hard to understand is it?
The site isn’t just outside Newbridge it’s very much an extension of the town. It’s been zoned residential. The main problem is that during the crash Kildare CC allowed an illegal quarry to operate out of this site for years, including grading material on site. This created a tremendous dust problem. There are existing developments right next to the site including a housing estate, a hotel and a school. These works were originally being carried out as part of a housing development that fell through. So to keep his head above water the developer started to sell sand and gravel from the site. As a result the hill that used to be on the site is gone and the level of the site has been substantially reduced. If the journal want a scoop they should investigate that! Brown envelopes indeed.
I should add that I believe locals are generally in favour of the development as what’s been left behind is an eyesore and rife for allowing illegal access to properties and anti-social behaviour.
@Awkward Seal:
Fair enough, someone who knows the site.
Sounds to me like it should be built on. Now there may well be something wrong with what this particular builder is proposing but there is no justification for taking 2 years to decide that!
Look at what’s going on in Athenry with the big Apple project, bogged down in planning when a similar but smaller project in Denmark announced about the same time is already up and running.
People should have the right to object, but there is know reason for it to take so long.
Rant over.
… and we blame the landlords?
You can now see why developers won’t bother their arse building any houses
Mary Murphy . . Are you implying that all homeless people are originally from Dublin?
@Mary Murphy:
Typical kildare county council rather see people sleeping rough than allow for housing. This is the same council who bulldozed a pensioners house in feighcullen and had him sent to jail fir contempt because the log cabin was not in keeping with its “forestry” surrounding but then granted permission for a local vet to build two storey 8bedroom mansion four hundred yards away double standards
@Sean taoiseach: not what you know but who you know to bribe and how much !
Not Enought Cash In The Brown Envlope
have your say