FG cllr sought property upgrades from developer in objection

A Fine Gael general election candidate sought to have a developer upgrade her home – which she shares with her Fine Gael TD husband – as part of her objection to six new houses.

Councillor Maeve O’Connell, who’s running for Fine Gael in the Rathdown constituency, entered into “an agreement” to get new landscaping and a “repair and refinish” of a gable wall at the home she shares with TD Colm Brophy.

The Dublin Rathdown candidate also demanded construction work end at 4pm daily even though council guidelines allow work to continue till 7pm. The development was delayed ten months after O’Connell and her neighbours appealed the local authority’s approval of the new houses.

O’Connell initially asked for the entire front and rear walls of her home to be replaced. When asked by The Ditch whether it was appropriate to request upgrades to her property during the planning process, she said, “This planning application had a significant impact” on her home.

“As part of the demolition of the building, the builder agreed to repair and refinish the side of (my property) as an external wall,” she said.

‘There is an agreement with the inhabitants’

Rory Corbett Construction Limited applied to Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council in January 2023 for permission to demolish a detached bungalow and build six new homes on a site at Slieve Rua Drive in Kilmacud, county Dublin.

Fine Gael councillor Maeve O’Connell, who lives next door to the site, submitted an observation to the council in March 2023. She would later, along with co-objectors, make observations to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) – with the state planning authority noting she had come to “an agreement” with the developer, which involved landscaping work on her property.

In O’Connell’s first observation, to Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, she raised concerns about the development and suggested improvements to her own property.

“This boundary wall is currently part of the garage of (the property next door to my home). Its exposure as part of the proposed development… should be rectified by an agreed treatment programme for both, standard heat insulation and standard noise insulation. This is required due to the building of an access road directly adjacent to this wall,” she said.

“The entire rear boundary wall of (my property) will need to be completely replaced and upgraded to provide both security and screening by the proposed development of the site (next door),” she said.

The Fine Gael election candidate also asked for the “provision of mature trees to provide screening” between her home and the new houses, as well as the replacement of her front garden boundary wall to “facilitate screening from the proposed new entrance”, according to her submission.

O’Connell also said construction should only be permitted Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm.

After the developer responded to the council’s request for more information on the proposed development, O’Connell lodged a new observation. She used the term “objections” in this observation.

“I submit the following objections in relation to the above applicant’s response to request for additional information… this design contravenes the objectives of the CDP (county development plan) and is contrary to proper planning and development in the area,” said O’Connell in her new submission dated 16 May, 2023.

She also said construction work should finish at 4pm – an hour earlier than she had suggested in her first submission.

The developer received permission for the development in July 2023 – but O’Connell and her co-objectors appealed this decision to ABP the following month.

An ABP inspector’s report said the developer had come to an “agreement” with O’Connell and her husband, Fine Gael TD and general election candidate Colm Brophy.

“There is an agreement with the inhabitants of (O’Connell’s home) to insulate and soundproof the gable wall adjacent to the proposed roadway, and also to plant evergreen trees on both sides of the boundary wall to minimise views from dwellings,” the inspector wrote in his report dated 15 March, 2024.

On 30 May, 2024 the ABP board voted to uphold the council’s decision to approve the six new homes.

Construction commenced on the development in September, according to a commencement notice filed in August this year.

The Ditch asked O’Connell if it was appropriate to request upgrades to her property during the planning process and whether it was reasonable to ask that construction only be allowed Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm. The Ditch also asked what were the terms of O’Connell’s agreement with the developer and if she accepts that the development was delayed by around ten months because of the appeal to ABP.

“This planning application had a significant impact on (my home) as it required the demolition of (the next-door property),” said O’Connel.

“Both houses were physically joined together,” she said – though the council and ABP described the next-door property as “detached” and O’Connell acknowledged in her initial observation that it was the only the properties’ garages that shared a common wall.

“As part of the demolition of the building, the builder agreed to repair and refinish the side of (my property) as an external wall,” she said.