Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 March 2017
266. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the way in which the residents of an unfinished housing estate (details supplied) in County Sligo can make their estate safe from a health and safety perspective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11445/17]
View answerSection 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides that, as soon as possible following a request by the developer or by the majority of the house-owners, a planning authority must initiate procedures to take in charge a residential housing estate, completed to its satisfaction in accordance with the planning permission. Section 180 also provides that, following a request by the majority of the house-owners, a planning authority must initiate procedures to take an unfinished estate in charge, where the authority has not commenced enforcement proceedings in respect of the estate within seven years of the expiry of the planning permission concerned. In the case of an unfinished estate, where the planning authority has commenced enforcement proceedings within seven years of the expiry of the planning permission or considers that enforcement proceedings will not result in the satisfactory completion of the estate, section 180 provides that, following a request by the majority of the house-owners, the authority may at its absolute discretion initiate procedures to take in charge the roads and some or all of the other services in the estate. A planning authority may, for the purposes of section 180, hold a plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the house-owners.
My Department, by way of circular letter PD 1/2008 dated 26 February 2008, issued updated policy guidance to planning authorities on Taking in Charge of Residential Developments/Management Arrangements. This advised each planning authority to develop or update, as appropriate, its policy on taking-in-charge by the end of June 2008, based on the following principles (among others):
- Certain core facilities/infrastructure to be taken in charge on request - public roads and footpaths, unallocated surface parking areas, public lighting, public water supply, foul and storm water drainage and public open spaces;
- The procedures for taking in charge to begin promptly on foot of a request by the majority of the residents in the development or by the developer, as appropriate. Protocols, including time frames, must be set out by planning authorities to respond to requests for taking in charge.
Each planning authority’s policy on taking in charge is required to be made available to the public and published on its website, and the policy is reported on to the elected members on a regular basis, and at least once annually.
Under the provisions of Section 30 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) I am specifically precluded from intervening in individual cases. However my Department has made enquiries to Sligo County Council in relation to the estate the subject of this question and I have been informed that the vast majority of this estate has been completed to a satisfactory standard. The portion of the lands which has been left unfinished has recently been sold and the new owners have met with the planning and enforcement sections of Sligo County Council to outline their intentions for the lands. In this regard, a planning application was lodged on 22 February 2017 for the completion of this unfinished part of the overall development.
