Long time AAM member needs planning help..

[TwoWheels]

Hi Gang,
Long story short; We replaced a static mobile home with a log cabin in Wicklow on land that we own.
We got *bad* advice from a professional that planning permission would not be required due to the new structure would be the same footprint as the established mobile home (In place for over 12 years).
We have established social contacts and have been a member of the local community since 1984 (long term rental of a property and purchase of land)
We were approached by planning authorities outlining that we must apply for retrospective permission for new build, we have gone through this whole process (With the assistance of a useless planning consultant)and have been refused on environmental grounds (I could go into this but too long)

My question to AAM'ers is this;
Who is the best person now to advise us on our appeal to An Bord Pleanála?
Is there a recognised expert in this area that you could recommend?
This is my mother’s retirement project and is causing severe stress, I understand we may have been too blasé about our approach, but this is the situation we now find ourselves.

Please help if you can, if you are uncomfortable posting contact details on this thread please PM me.

Many thanks and I will update this thread with any updates.
TW.

 

[onq]

Two wheels,

Yours is a familiar situation.
You have taken bad advice to achieve your aim.
You have wrong footed yourself with the local authority.

Referring to your mother's retirement or your place in the local community seems to have cut no ice with them and you have received a refusal.
There is a real outstanding issue of environmental concern and this appears not to have been addressed to the satisfaction of the local authority.
It is unlikely that an appeal from this position will succeed - its clear you've made too many compromises from the point of view of the local authority.

In such a situation, I would expect the Bórd to uphold the refusal.

====================

But do not despair!

If you search my posts you should find references to a similar situation and how it is possible to work with a local authority to achieve a reasonable resolution.
Our clients had tried similar methods to your own, including using a professional who was a relative of a local councillor - all to no avail.
Eventually they were referred to us and we advised them to play things by the book and not try and do things on the cheap.

• If tacheometric surveys were required, get them.
• If detailed engineering reports were what was needed, procure them.
• If a state of the art waste water treatment system was the solution, then budget for it.
• Only mention their connection with the community when all the other issue=s were dealt with.

Eventually our clients came to view things from this professional point of view.
We were able to forget about trading on the historical associations and the community links.
This let us concentrate on the environmental issues, which were considerable and included proximity to an SAC.

However allow me to give you a word of warning - you get what you pay for:
All the money our clients had paid for bad advice previously was not recoverable, but that wasn't down to our office.

A precedent set on other sites in other local authority areas with detailed problems does not form a cast-iron basis for dealing with your problems on your site with your local authority.
In addition to putting a lot of time into this ourselves, we also had to get competent engineers of national standing and adopt state of the art procedures for disposal of foul and waste water.
The fees were significant and the build costly, but these extra-overs taken together didn't reach even a third of the €60,000 a neighbour was looking for to sell us a percolation area in an adjoining field.

FWIW

ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matters at hand.