[ad_1]
After a 15-year planning battle, a well-known West Kerry musician received permission to build a house on his family’s farm.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich successfully appealed the Kerry County Council’s decision to reject the permit for a home in Baile na bPoc in West Kerry Gaeltacht.
Mr. Ó Beaglaoich’s case has received national attention and the musician refused to remove from its site a mobile home that has been deemed an unauthorized development by the local authority.
The musician said he was willing to face jail instead of leaving his home.
Ó Beaglaoich has recently embarked on a campaign highlighting what he calls “unfair” planning policies and which are having a “detrimental effect” on communities in the Gaeltacht areas.
VIDEO Button man Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich in Pocktown received building permit pic.twitter.com/VzMYlIuXFg
– NuachtTG4 (@ NuachtTG4) October 30, 2020
He recently erected 235 white crosses in his field to symbolically represent the negative impact of rural depopulation on his village.
He also organized a protest at a recent council meeting in Tralee.
Their most recent request to build a new home and remove the motorhome from their land in Baile na bPoc had been rejected by the Council on the grounds that the development would be unduly disruptive to the landscape and set a precedent for undesirable tape development. of a suburban nature in an exposed and sensitive area.
However, following an appeal, An Bord Pleanála has now overturned that decision, as it considers that the proposed single-story house conforms to the traditional settlement pattern in Baile na bPoc.
Ó Beaglaoich said he was elated and relieved.
He said: “This has been a 15-year struggle and it weighs on my heart. I finally have legal status in my own land. This struggle has been for the rights of younger generations to live in their own villages.
“Planning policies are driving people off their land and into the big cities. Rural Ireland is slowly being suffocated.”
Ó Beaglaoich has been trying to get permission to build a house on the site since 2005.
Frustrated and in an attempt to circumvent planning regulations, the musician decided to build a small house on an articulated truck trailer in 2015 and moved it to the site, but the local authority said the development violated planning laws.
An execution order has been issued to remove the structure.
Ó Beaglaoich faces jail time and a possible fine of up to 12.6 million euros if he fails to comply with the order.
The musician had refused to do so and said he was taking a position on behalf of young people who were having difficulty securing planning in the Gaeltacht areas.
He said, “We may have won this little battle, but the war is not yet won.”
“This is just the beginning. We will take our campaign to the Dáil, we will take it to Brussels, we will do whatever it takes.
“Planning laws must be changed for rural communities to survive. Without people on the land, you will not have the language, you will not have the music, you will lose the essence of what Ireland is.
Ó Beaglaoich added: “Planners must plan for the people and not for meaningless policies.”
[ad_2]