Some planning questions

How often should one try getting planning permission for a site, only to keep getting refused before going to An Bórd Pleanala? Is it worth going to them? If they refuse planning is it then impossible to go back to your local council with the same application.

Also, in a related manner, do sites which have not yet recieved planning permission sell well, or would you be wasting your time selling a (rural) site without planning?

Hi Whackin, re the second part of your post, sites in the country are usually only sold "Subect to" planning, so, you may have a buyer, they will apply for pp on the site and if they receive it then they will buy the site. Otherwise the site is really only agricultural land and you won't get a fraction of the price for it in comparison to what it would be worth with pp.

You should be in regular contact with the planning authority and your local concellors and try and not let you planning application get refused. You should "pull"/ withdraw your application at the last minute rather than let it get refused, by getting word that its about to be refused... Then you should sit with your planner and work out what they want before re submitting. I think there is something a long the lines that if you are refused 3 times (not sure of no.) that you cannot apply for a certain period..

In terms of An Bord Pleanala.. We appealed one of our conditions (out of 17) and not only did they not give us planning they stripped us of planning from the whole site..

This is my experience and we percevered and eventually got there after about 5 yrs!!

Good luck and hope this helps

From experience it pays to speak to your local county council engineer ahead of send ing in your application and ask them what you would likely get planning for, ie bungalow, two storey etc. Also ask things like where should you put your entrance and ask questions like water supply etc.
They will generally be ablt to tell you whether you wioll ge the go ahead or not.
By passing this step can lead to heart ache as they like to be consulted first.
Also get your local TD in at the beginning of the process.