COUNTY COUNCIL FACED WITH DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVISION AFTER REGULATOR RAISES CONCERNS

Monaghan Co Council faces the prospect of having to revisit and revise its recently adopted Co Development Plan. This follows correspondence issued to the local authority on Friday last by Minister for Local Government James Browe TD on foot of concerns raised with him by the watchdog body the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR). The OPR is seeking the removal from the Monaghan plan of two material contraventions voted through by the elected Council members against the recommendation of the senior Council executive and planning officials. One of the decisions relates to a proposal to expand the retail offering at a business park in the Clones Road area of Monaghan Town; the other concerns a zoning decision taken in relation to lands in the Sam’s Bridge area of the town established as being vulnerable to flooding.

At Monday’s meeting of the Council, Chief Executive Robert Burns said that late on Friday evening correspondence had been received from the Minister for Housing Planning and Local Government indicating his intention to issue a Section 31 direction to the Council in relation to the Co Development Plan. In a briefing to the members, Senior Planner Adrian Hughes said this was a legal matter and therefore required some attention. On Wednesday he had sent an email to the members containing a link to the OPR website. The members had also been referred to the letter the OPR had issued to the Minister asking him to issue a direction to Monaghan Co Council in relation to two material alterations in the Co Development Plan. The deletions sought related to the retail park on the Clones…