Tipperary man Sean Meehan, who is fighting to save a wood-encased mobile home erected on his own land, has said he received a “devastating” update on the case Christmas week.
Meehan (66), who is originally from the area, was told by An Bord Pleanála that he has not satisfied them that he was a “social” or “economic” need to live in his native part of the county where he says he was born and raised.
Speaking to Gript, he said that he had been informed by ABP that they were experiencing backlogs and that a decision would likely be given on the 9th of March.
However he discovered a letter in his post box last week informing him that his plea to be allowed to keep his home has been refused.
He says that Christmas for him this year was “a disaster” after he received the notice of APB’s refusal.
“It was an absolute disaster,” he said adding, “I was saying ‘ok, I got a bit of breathing space here ‘til the 9th of March, like they’re backlogged, but then just to post it out just like that Christmas week…”
“I went out to the box and I got it, I came in, sat down, made a cup of tea, and I looked at it and I said, ‘ok, I’m gonna bite the bullet here and open it,”.
“Hand on heart, I knew what it was going to be before I opened it,” he said.
After separating from his wife, Meehan purchased a disused patch of land between two existing houses and brought a mobile home onto the land without first seeking approval from the local county council.
He previously told Gript that he cleaned up the land which was being used as “a local dumping ground” and was strewn with abandoned appliances like washing machines.
After being notified of the existence of Meehan’s home, Tipperary County Council ordered him to remove the mobile home of the land he owns and have been pursuing him through the court over the last four years.
Meehan said that he is to appear before Cashel District Court again on the 9th of January next where he expects that the judge will recommence an enforcement order for him to remove the cabin as had been done on behalf of the council before he made his ABP appeal.
As Gript previously reported, the pensioner was told he would be put in jail for four months if he failed to remove his home from the land within the given notice period. Now he says he fears that the same course of action will be taken against him again.
He says he does not understand why the council are being so insistent on the removal of his mobile home saying that other people he knows have been allowed to retain similar structures by taking actions like encasing them in concrete boards to give them the appearance of houses.
Meehan says he has offered to take the same action in respect of his own mobile home to no avail.
He claims that despite ordering him to remove his home, Tipperary Council County – who he says have advised Meehan to go on the housing list – have not offered him any alternative accommodation.
He expressed frustration over the fact that planning laws have been suspended in relation to the housing of Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTP) in modular home units in his home country while “nothing” is being done to help “native people” in need of housing.
Last April it was reported that there was “disquiet” in Clonmel over the government’s provision of modular homes for Ukrainians with Mayor Independent Cllr Richie Molloy saying that “people who are on the waiting list for many years, are saying ‘why wasn’t this done years ago’?” for them.
“While I do sympathise with the people from the Ukraine, and especially families and young children and all they have to go through, I am very conscious of the huge waiting list. Even in the Clonmel area, it’s over 400 people on that list. Some of them have been on the housing list for many, many, years. So that’s a concern,” said Cllr Molloy.
ABP’s refusal to allow the retention of the mobile home are as follows:
Furthermore, the Board considered the floor area of the mobile home, proposed to be retained as a permanent dwelling house (28 square metres) to be inadequate, contrary to the minimum floor area of 70 square metres advised in the DoEHLG Guidelines ‘Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities (2007). The Board considered that the development proposed to be retained would form a discordant feature on the landscape at this location, would seriously injure the visual amenities of the area, would militate against the preservation of the rural environment, would set an undesirable precedent for other such located development in the vicinity, and would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.