10 planning decisions overturned in the county last year
Just ten planning decisions in County Galway which were appealed to An Bórd Pleanála last year were reversed, according to a new report.
The figures – which are contained in the Bórd Pleanála Annual Report 2015 – show that just 28 appeals were made against Galway County Council planning decisions last year, which equates to a rate of just 2.5%.
The figures show that in 2015, the local authority made 1,114 planning decisions – 28 of these were appealed (2.5%), which equated to just 1.7% of all decisions nationally which were appealed.
The Board made decisions on 35 county appeals (there would have been a carry-over of decisions waiting to be made from the end of 2014).
A breakdown of the figure of 35 shows that nine decisions were upheld, 16 had planning conditions varied and ten were reversed.
Dr Mary Kelly, Chairperson of An Bórd Pleanála said there was an increase in appeals during 2015, “in line with reports of an increase in construction activity in the economy”.
A breakdown of the 28 appeals lodged in the county in 2015 shows that 16 were residential applications, four were industrial, four were agricultural, three were retail and one was for utilities.
Meanwhile, in the City Council area, there were 319 planning decisions made, of which, 29 were appealed (9.1%), which equated to 1.8% of all appeals nationally.
There were 28 decisions made by the Board last year – twelve Council decisions were upheld, ten had planning conditions varied and six were overturned.