Tullamore housing development appealed to An Bord Pleanala

The construction of 127 houses and a creche in Ardan, Tullamore, which had been given the go ahead by Offaly County Council, has been appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

The proposed development, at Eiscir Meadows/Norbury Woods, Ardan, includes the demolition of existing farm outbuildings.

The plan includes a range of two-bedroom and three-bedroom terraced houses, three-bed semi-detached homes, four-bed semi-detached, four-bed detached and four-bed detached corner units.

The creche would cater for a maximum of 58 children, with 30 car parking spaces, along with car parking spaces for each house.

Planning permission was granted in December, subject to a range of conditions. Now, three submissions have been lodged to An Bord Pleanala.

One of the objections submitted to the local authority was on behalf of the Eiscir Meadows/Norbury Woods Residents Association, another was lodged by Fiona Duffy, while the third was lodged by Finan Dooley and Colleen Moyles. The residents' association objection was based on a number of grounds including concerns regarding traffic impacts on Norbury Woods Green and concerns in relation to existing trees being felled to facilitate the proposed development.

It has also raised concerns about 14 of the houses as regards size, width, height and massing, particularly “concerns with regard to differences in height between existing and proposed housing will lead to privacy issues vis a vis rear boundary walls”.

However, in response, the council's area planners stated they do not consider that those houses “will have any negative impacts on adjoining houses due to their scale or height”.

The submission also refers to concerns about the proposed creche's location on high ground where ruins of farm buildings are currently located and suggests that land should be excavated to surrounding ground levels.

One of the other submissions expressed concern that there was no mobility plan or transport assessment for the development, while it also expressed the view that the internal estate traffic proposals were unsafe. The council, in response, stated that traffic issues have been assessed.

According to another third party observation submitted to the council, the proposed development lacked single storey buildings, while it also observed that there was a lack of public facilities in the locality, “given the substantial number of dwellings which have been built in the past 15 years in the area”.

That observation also recommended that Norbury Woods and Eiscir Meadows be fully completed, but the council's response was that that was “not a matter for the subject developer”.

An Bord Pleanala will rule on the case at a later stage.