Neighbours objecting to Exempt Development

Housedevil1

Hi my house has a concealed entrance & no footpath. I recently applied to find out if forming a door in my building out to an open space was exempted development & I got official confirmation that it was. Some of my neighbours are up in arms & are planning to object to this - can they do this?? I live on a very busy road & our access is basically an accident waiting to happen. Personality I can’t believe people would put lives at risk ( I have children) just to be difficult.

Victor

Who owns the open space?

What are the objections?

Housedevil1

Hi Victor - Open Space was left over from the Builders 1980’s -was suppose to be Estate entrance but was deemed too dangerous so left as Open Space - & is a short cut to Bus stop for people. It is not dedicated Open Space - small parcel with a few trees. Zoned A . It’s mainly overgrown with some grass. 5 residents in Cul de sac making objection as the building has historically mixed used planning & we could sell & a restaurant open up 🙄 we have reassured them that it is solely residential. They know this - they are just chancers.

Charles Babbage

You are attempting to establish a right of way over land that isn't yours. This does raise some issues.

Housedevil1

Hi Charles - is it not already a public right of way if people are using it for the last 30 yrs to get to the bus stop & walk their dogs? Another house has actually tarmaced a small piece to access a house they built on their site corner. These people are actually one of the five objectors!! They are trying to claim that the planning office didn’t do their job properly when assessing our application for section 5 - surely once we have this declared it cannot be over thrown.

https://www.efc.ie/news/court-of-appeal-clarifies-the-position-in-respect-of-conflicting-section-5-declarations/

The above would appear to be relevant to your situation in that it clarifies the appeals procedure following a Section 5 declaration - "...an application to the Board to review a Section 5 Declaration can only be made by the person issued with the Section 5 Declaration, otherwise, no challenge can be made to the validity of a Section 5 Declaration except by way of judicial review initiated pursuant to section 50(2) of the PADA within 8 weeks of the date of the Section 5 Declaration."

So, your neighbours have 8 weeks from the decision date to launch a judicial review. Given the expense I would think that unlikely.

Gumbo

Who are they objecting to?

There is no grounds or mechanism to object to works when hey are exempt.

All they can do is make a complaint to Planning Enforcement who will investigate and rule in favour once you are following what the Section 5 Application outlined. Its not like a Planning Application whereby people can object.

Have they appealed the Section 5 Decision to ABP?