Planning enforcement: names and addresses of complainants to county councils?

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Moral Ethos

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I just wanted to know are the names and addresses of complainants to county councils about planning violations kept secret from the alleged violator?
 
Re: Planning enforcement

firstly... contact your localauthority for the answer...

secondly... as an example...
[broken link removed]

Is my complaint confidential?

Your name and address will be treated in strictest confidence by Fingal County Council. You should note that under the Freedom of Information Acts a copy of a complaint can be sought. Fingal County Council's policy is to withhold the name and address of complainants.
 
Re: Planning enforcement

There is basically no protection for whistle-blowers. It seems to be up to the council whether they wish to protect your identity or not. I can understand completely why complainants would want to have anonymity in these cases.
 
Re: Planning enforcement

The person I am complaining about is a local big shot landowner. He thinks he is above the law and does as he pleases. He has breached several conditions of planning on his house. I am afraid he will make trouble for me and my family.

I am curious to know how far the planning authourity will go to protect my identity?
 
Moral Ethos, so what is unusual about this situation ? this goes on all the time. Ireland really is a place of who you know and how much you can pay, like it or not, and i am not saying this is right. anyway, from my experience it is not the local authority planners who have final say, it is the architect and believe me i know what i am talking about ! who do you think pays for all those fine dinners and weekends away and contributions for this cause and the other.
If I were you, I would take a sensible decision and not yet involved. You won't win and you will only make your life difficult ! As for protecting your identity, which planet are you from ?
sorry if this sounds abrupt, but i am afraid this is pretty much the name of the game and always will be (bent bureaucrats and their monied chums).
 
lorna said:
Moral Ethos, so what is unusual about this situation ? this goes on all the time. Ireland really is a place of who you know and how much you can pay, like it or not, and i am not saying this is right. anyway, from my experience it is not the local authority planners who have final say, it is the architect and believe me i know what i am talking about ! who do you think pays for all those fine dinners and weekends away and contributions for this cause and the other.
If I were you, I would take a sensible decision and not yet involved. You won't win and you will only make your life difficult ! As for protecting your identity, which planet are you from ?
sorry if this sounds abrupt, but i am afraid this is pretty much the name of the game and always will be (bent bureaucrats and their monied chums).
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As sorry as I am to say it I totally agree with you Lorna.
It is a terrible situation we have here in this country that trust doesn't exist with county councils.

Moral I would suggest what you do is get somebody else to make the complaint for you, someone in a totally different county.
 
S.L.F said:
Moral I would suggest what you do is get somebody else to make the complaint for you, someone in a totally different county.
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I was thinking of using my maiden name and using my parents address 2 counties away. Would that work?
 
I can only speak for the County Councils in my area, but on the laois.ie and northtippcoco.ie you can see every letter sent in with an application and all submissions (objections and the like). You just type in the name of the applicant or the address if you know it. In offaly, you cannot view these files, you can just see the Planning number it has been allocated and no further information. It all depends on where you're located. Search the relevant County Council website.

I know someone who put in an objection and they received an initial acknowledgement letter and received a letter of a decision to grant PP to the party they were objecting to. I can only presume that the Applicant received a letter notifying them of the objection.
 
It might, but the problem is that a complaint from someone not directly affected by a breach of planning permission, or an objection from someone not directly affected, might not be taken too seriously.

If you're afraid of this guy, it's your call. If he makes life difficult for you, you can go to the police.

I think lorna's comments above, while possibly true in some cases, suggest that we should never bother to do anything to upset cosy cartels and the status quo. People who believe they're above the law will certainly get away with more if their "victims" just sit around and do nothing.
 
ontherun said:
I know someone who put in an objection and they received an initial acknowledgement letter and received a letter of a decision to grant PP to the party they were objecting to. I can only presume that the Applicant received a letter notifying them of the objection.
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No. It's standard practice in many councils to send notification of the eventual decision to anyone who lodged an objection.
 
I suppose it also comes down to what you expect to happen if you do object. If you have images of the bulldozers arriving to knock the place then you'll likely be disappointed. He's likely connected enough that all he'd need to do is apply for retention which he'd likely get (assuming the deviations from planning don't involve something like the addition of a small airport etc)

The risk to you sounds too great. I do understand your frustration though.
 
moral ethos

how has the breaches on this mans house contributed to either:
1. your loss of amenity or privacy?
2. a devaluation of your house?

if it hasnt significantly affected either of the above i really wouldnt get involved..... however if either of the above has occured then i definitly would be on to the LA.
 
I would second sydthebeats comment. Contravention of a Granted Planning Permission is annoying, but unless it is deriously detrimental to yourself. it is probably not worth contacting the Enforcement Dept.

A point to note is that this is regarding enforcement of a Planning Permission, (where the local authority does not publish the information on it's website - although it is available under the Freedom of Information Act) , and not an objection to a Planning Application (when copies of letters and names and addresses are often posted on planning authorities websites).
 
if as you say you are thinking of using your parents address in a different county to protect your identity then would the council not think "why is someone living two counties away complaining about something not even on their doorstep" ?
life is too short for this type of hassle if it is not directly affecting your quality of life.
 
Thanks for the advice so far.

Ok, this is what has happened. This guy bought the house from our ex neighbour last year. The person who bought the house is from the UK and uses this house as a holiday home. He has local firms doing all the works whilst he is resident elsewhere.

Last week they attacked a hedge on which sit many trees that overhang my property. They have removed the hedge on his side to such an extent that the roots of the trees would be weakened and in the event of a storm the trees would be liable to fall onto my house. I checked the planning online and there was no permission granted to remove the hedge.

I feel that my home may be at risk from his actions.

Your continued advice is most welcome.
 
Moral Ethos said:
Thanks for the advice so far.

Ok, this is what has happened. This guy bought the house from our ex neighbour last year. The person who bought the house is from the UK and uses this house as a holiday home. He has local firms doing all the works whilst he is resident elsewhere.

Last week they attacked a hedge on which sit many trees that overhang my property. They have removed the hedge on his side to such an extent that the roots of the trees would be weakened and in the event of a storm the trees would be liable to fall onto my house. I checked the planning online and there was no permission granted to remove the hedge.

I feel that my home may be at risk from his actions.

Your continued advice is most welcome.
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i will play devils advocate here.... hope you dont mind.

1. Have you engaged a qualified person to clarify or certify that this will happen? Its unlikely the removal of a hedge would affect the rigidity of a trees root structure... were any roots of the tress cut below ground level?

2. Planning is not required to remove a hedge, as long as the hedge is all on his side of the boundary. if the new neighbour wants to put up a wall it can be 2.0m high without requiring planning.

was the hedge the boundary?
 
Removing a hedge is probably OK unless it was a specific condition of the Grant of Planning Permission that it be retained.
 
extopia said:
Removing a hedge is probably OK unless it was a specific condition of the Grant of Planning Permission that it be retained.
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This particular planning permission has a specific condition that hedges must be retained. In fact it is a feature of all planning granted in this midland county.

I shall ask the council before proceeding further.

Thanks again. :)
 
Moral Ethos said:
I was thinking of using my maiden name and using my parents address 2 counties away. Would that work?
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I don't know but what I do know is that people have objected to things going on in other counties. How much action is taken is another story.

DLRCC has a terrible record for enforcement.
2 years ago I complained to them about goings-on in a neighbours house ie running a business from home and they told me I had to get the proof that it was going on even though the person was advertising on the web, newspapers, leaflets, phone book I think the only thing the person wasn't doing was telling DLRCC in person and thus they wouldn't entertain the notion that anything was going on.

At least in your case there is clear cut planning issues.

I wish you luck!
 
Moral ...just make the complaint through your family solicitor or an out of town solicitor and your out of the picture .But i think they will have a good idea where the complaint came from.
 
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