Despite what I reported yesterday evening as an apparent understanding that work at the Brittas site on which an enforcement order has been issued by South Dublin County Council would cease, it has not.
Yesterday, Judge John O’Connor said that if works continued on the Brittas site before his judgment on February 5th, he would consider that “disrespect”.
However, I have been informed that the developers are returning to Court tomorrow, Thursday morning, with an apparent proposal to wind down operations on the site. It remains to be seen what this amounts to.
The hearing will be in the Circuit Court before Judge O’Connor at 10am.
I have been in contact with several people who have confirmed that work began at first light and have seen video and photographic evidence which confirms that vehicles belonging to Branach Developments arrived there this morning before 7am and that work has been in progress on the modular homes which are now at an advanced stage of construction.
As reported, it appeared to have been the understanding that no more work would be carried out on the site before the Court proceedings resume on February 5. Local people, however, contacted me to say that the site was opened before 7am and that work was continuing for several hours which included the use of heavy equipment, as shown in a video, and block laying around the dwellings.
I contacted Paddy Byrne who owns Branach Developments which is carrying out the work to ask him to comment on the work and whether it “might be regarded as disrespectful towards the Court?” Byrne stated that he could not comment as “the matter is before the Court,” and that they are “addressing the judge’s comments on site strictly in line with legal advice.
One of the people who witnessed what was happening on the site this morning told me that he had contacted South Dublin County Council to inform them what was going on and suggested to them that they might send someone to Brittas to record the evidence that could be presented to the Court.
Independent Councillor Linda de Courcy also contacted the SDCC Chief Executive Colm Ward to let him know about what would appear to be the developer and owners simply ignoring the Court and continuing on regardless. She has asked that the Council take immediate action to ensure that the site be shut down immediately.
Councillor de Courcy said that “Once again it would seem that the developers believe that they can simply continue as they have been since August despite the warning letter, the Council enforcement order, and now several days in the Circuit Court which are set to continue after Christmas. They seem to be intent on bringing the development to completion before the Court has the opportunity to force them to comply, as ought to have been done before now.”
What was clear to me from observing the proceedings yesterday and on December 4 is that there would appear to be little ground for the developers to claim an exemption under Section 4 (1)(h) of the 2000 Planning and Development Act. Counsel for Paddy Byrne and the McDermotts has claimed this allows an exemption as renovation and maintenance and that the works do not constitute new development.
That section allows an exemption for “development consisting of the carrying out of works for the maintenance, improvement or other alteration of any structure, being works which affect only the interior of the structure or which do not materially affect the external appearance of the structure.”
Michael O’Donnell SC has argued that no new development has taken place and that all of the constructions have been on existing foundations. It is quite evident to anyone who has visited the site that this is not the case and Stephen Dodd SC for SDCC referenced inspection reports that show extensive new development and new foundations.
Dodd has claimed that the case law and the exemption claimed were not “remotely connected” to what is taking place in Brittas. SDCC has demanded a site clearance and restoration of the site in compliance with the order and zoning of the area as one of natural beauty.
One of the affidavits presented to Counsel yesterday was from Keith McDermott – who is one of the owners of the site through Mullnassa and is a director and shareholder in several large IPAS contractors including Polarside. That affidavit appears to refer to 71 original homes on the site: which there were not and which would further weaken the argument that the development is simply renovation of those existing homes.
Yesterday, Dodd reiterated the Council’s claim that the Brittas site is “manifestly unauthorised development” that it needed to be stopped and the site restored. He further claimed that the developers had been attempting to delay the proceedings and that “no normal process” had been followed.