A “catastrophic and silly” error led to the withdrawal of a local area plan costing tens of thousands of euros to develop at last night’s Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council meeting.
The Blackrock Local Area Plan, which was due to be voted on last night, could not be dealt with by councillors because some submissions from the public had not been considered by planners as part of the public consultation process.
Local area plans are developed through a statutory process which includes public consultation.
Submissions received from the public must be considered by planners and included in a report to councillors before a final vote is taken to adopt, amend or reject a plan.
The statutory process also includes a timeline for each stage of developing the plan. The relevant stage for the Blackrock plan expires on September 12th.
Outgoing county manager Owen Keegan said it would not be possible to proceed last night with the Blackrock plan.
A number of emailed submissions had not been considered and legal advice was being sought. He told councillors they would be informed once the advice was received. He did not comment on whether the whole process would need to begin again.
Describing the error as “catastrophic and silly”, Niamh Bhreathnach (Labour) requested a “more detailed report” on what went wrong.
Councillors needed reassurance, she said, that more safety nets would be put in place to ensure problems were identified earlier.
Marie Baker (FG) said it was unfortunate the error happened.
Denis O’Callaghan (Labour) said it was most likely the process “will have to recommence all over again”.
In other business, a local area plan for Kilternan and Glenamuck and a conservation plan for the Dalkey Islands were approved.
Councillors also agreed to make more than €7 million in funding available for various projects as part of an amendment to its capital programme.
