Council outlines legal advice that Ballagh Part 8 public realm plan can’t be changed

Roscommon County Council has made a commitment to engage in mediation talks in a bid to resolve the long-running dispute over the public realm works in Ballaghaderreen, but has also cited four pages of legal advice to insist that the Part 8 project cannot be changed.

At yesterday’s monthly meeting of Roscommon County Council, Director of Services, Mark Keaveney said that the council executive was always open to discussions on the Ballaghaderreen public realm project.

However, Mr Keaveney said that once the Part 8 project for Ballaghaderreen was approved by the elected members, there was no scope for the council to change it. “It cannot be amended,” he said.

He explained to the meeting that the Part 8 process in relation to Ballaghaderreen was a statutory one approved by the elected members of Boyle Municipal District. He said the funding is then secured on the back of that planning application being in place.

Pointing out that the council did look at every option for this project and how to deal with it, the Director of Services outlined to the elected members at the meeting yesterday the legal advice it had received in relation to Part 8 developments.

Reading a number of paragraphs from the legal advice, Mr Keaveney said: “The Part 8 is a serious and binding legal mechanism. Once completed in accordance with Statute, it provides the local authority with a lawful basis to proceed with the development. There is no legal basis for elected members or others to vary or halt the development after the resolution is passed and the statutory deadlines have expired.

“Any attempt to do so falls outside the legal powers granted under the planning acts and risk being declared unlawful by the courts. To protect the integrity of the local authority and the rule of law, it is essential that the Part 8 process be respected and the development proceeds only in accordance with the statutory procedures.” 

Mr Keaveney said that from that legal advice, “we have very little scope to amend the Part 8”.

In initially raising the Ballaghaderreen public realm project at yesterday’s council meeting, Independent councillor from Ballaghaderreen, Michéal Frain, said that “if we are looking at developing towns around the county, we’ll have to look at a new consultation process”.

He said lessons needed to be learned and that people all over Ireland were watching to see what was going to happen in Ballaghaderreen.

Cllr Frain said the people of the town had been disenfranchised and he also wanted to "bury the myth" that people in the town don’t want change. He said the town was one of the most diverse towns in the county and was one that embraced change “if it’s given a chance”.

“Proper consultation is a two-way thing. The people who came up from Ballaghaderreen to this meeting have genuine concerns. They are decent to the core and they want the best for their town. We need to talk to people and not at them,” he said.

Cllr Frain repeated his call for a form of mediation to be brought in to resolve the dispute and proposed that it also involve Oireachtas members. He also said he would like to look at all of the four pages of the council's legal advice and not just a few paragraphs.

Councillors also agreed to a proposal by Cllr Liam Callaghan that representatives from Ballaghaderreen, elected members from the Boyle Municipal District and council officials come together to engage on the issue.

“With two and half million spent, it would be a huge disappointment if the project was shelved,” said Cllr Callaghan.

Mr Keaveney said the council executive was open to discussions “but we can’t change the Part 8”.

To counter the loss of parking in The Square, the Director of Services said that the council had given an undertaking to develop a new car park in The Plots Area behind Barrack Street with a capacity of just over 50 spaces.

A commitment has also been given to upgrade the access and lighting at the existing car-park in The Plots which has a capacity of about 70 spaces. Councillors were informed that these works would cost in the region of €800,000.