"Bad planning is not a victimless crime," commented Dr. Berna Grist of UCD recently. An Taisce engages in the planning process with a view to having law and policy properly applied, for the good of communities.
An Taisce has said there should be resignations in Dublin City Council after An Bord Pleanála again criticised council permission for high-rise development.
The board has indicated to Chartered Land that it will reject its plan for the Carlton site on O'Connell Street involving a 13-storey building topped by a sloping park.
AN TAISCE has warned of “irreparable damage” to one of Galway’s most historic quarters, following a decision to grant Allied Irish Banks (AIB) permission to redevelop part of Lynch’s Castle.
An Taisce’s Galway branch is to appeal the plan, which involves demolition of later additions to the medieval building on the corner of Abbeygate Street and construction of a new three-storey building from the castle’s northwest wall.
Kerry landscape damaged by rural houses, admits council
THE COUNTRYSIDE in Co Kerry has been damaged significantly by the proliferation of one-off houses, Kerry County Council has acknowledged in new guidelines it has published to protect the remaining landscape.
Foreign tourists have commented widely upon the damage, according to a new booklet issued by the council for applicants looking for planning permission for rural houses.
An Bord Pleanála rejects Dunleer schemes
FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor
AN TAISCE has won its third successive appeal against decisions by Louth County Council to grant permission for residential-led developments in Dunleer, with An Bord Pleanála overturning all three of the proposed schemes.
An Taisce, Ireland’s National Trust, today issued a warning that moves to use the Irish Pension fund to invest in a State Infrastructure Bond could be aimed in the wrong direction. The plan, devised by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and presented to the Minister for Finance last week proposes that the pension fund would be used to “provide much needed finance for the building of roads, railways, schools, hospitals and utility projects”.
An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland1, has launched judicial review proceedings in London to challenge the legality of UK Secretary of State Ed Davey’s decision2 to grant permission to build and operate a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in the Bristol Channel, Somerset, 150 miles from the Irish coast.
In papers issued in the High Court in London by lawyers Leigh Day, An Taisce challenges the legal compliance of the decision by the Government with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and the UK’s own regulations on transboundary impacts and consultation.
An Taisce responds to today’s Government announced that it had approved proposals for the preparation of a new Planning and Development Bill to establish a new Planning Regulator.
From an initial reading of the Press Release, it appears to cover one of a number of key recommendations by Mahon, that being the plan for an independent planning regulator to review / assess forward planning, for example city and county development plans.
An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland, is asking Cork City Council to redraw the masterplan for Cork's Marina Park to ensure the public park is not split in two by a proposed GAA facility.
The proposed GAA campus, which incorporates an all-weather pitch, as well as a host of other key facilities, is a welcome development and can be delivered in such a way as not to sever the public amenity of Marina Park.
For decades An Taisce has been fighting a battle to protect our natural heritage and to save many threatened aspects of our built heritage. This has been an uphill struggle, often carried on in the face of great hostility because of public and political attitudes, too often governed by concern for short-term economic or financial gain, and too rarely influenced by recognition of the crucial importance of preserving what we have inherited from the past.
