Probe into council's 'irregular' planning decisions (Carlow)

[verbatim]

Probe into council’s ‘irregular’ planning decisions

independent.ie/national-news … 52358.html

By Paul Melia

Monday April 26 2010

A MAJOR investigation will be launched into Carlow County Council after planning irregularities were uncovered during an official audit.

The Irish Independent can today reveal a number of complaints have been made to Environment Minister John Gormley about the council, which will be subjected to an in-depth probe in the coming weeks.

It is the first named council to be investigated under a fresh clampdown into planning issues.

The move follows an audit carried out last year, which identified “corporate governance issues” in the planning department, including the use of “special development contributions” and planning permissions being granted by default because they were not processed within the statutory eight weeks.

It also raised concerns about the use of planning enforcement powers and the disposal of council-owned land without a valuation being carried out.

The statutory audit, which was carried out by the Department of the Environment’s Local Government Audit Service, raises major concerns about how the council complies with its legal obligations.

It also addressed a 2008 High Court settlement that the authority reached with a developer, which is having a “serious impact” on its finances.

The local authority ordered a building company to construct the Eastern Relief Road around part of the town, even though it did not own all of the required land. The last 1.5km of the main Carlow to Dublin road was left unfinished and dubbed the “road to nowhere”.

[Puckane]

I see the article notes that the county manager is Tom Barry
former Director of Services of Planning at North Tipp Co Co…
Bad planning following the poor man everywhere it seems

[bugler]

It’s amazing how these ‘irregular’ decisions and behaviours are viewed as entirely ‘regular’ when they actually happen.