Criminal Assets Bureau 'should investigate unauthorised developments in Kildare'

The Criminal Assets Bureau should be asked to investigate unauthorised developments in County Kildare.

The call came as a number of politicians expressed concern at the rise in the incidence of unauthorised development (UD) - which refers to a building or a change to a property that needs, but doesn’t have, planning permission.

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A cross party group of seven councillors - Fintan Brett, Paul Ward, Brendan Wyse, Tim Durkan, Daragh Fitzpatrick, William Durkan and Kevin Duffy - asked KCC to commit to attend meetings to “address and work through” the issue.

One of them, Brendan Wyse, said "people with big money can come in” clear a site and put mobile homes on it without permission “overnight.” He added: “CAB need to look at it and see (what’s happening)."

He suggested that KCC did not appear to be “capable of dealing with it.”

He said, at a KCC meeting, that while the council has responded to a call for meetings this would be forgotten about.

Some people are terrified by this , he said, adding that the activity needs to be challenged.

He said KCC should "show a bit of strength” and “get people’s faith back.”

Cllr Tracey O’Dwyer said the gardaí have indicated that people they are looking for are involved in unauthorised development and to tackle it would be for the benefit of the community.

Cllr Fintan Brett asked if there is a perception that people are not going through the planning process because they can get away with it.

“Serial offenders should be prioritised for action,” he said.

Cllr Suzanne Doyle said some are exploiting conditions created by the housing crisis for commercial gain and she said renters are being preyed upon.

KCC official Alan Dunney rejected the idea that council staff are incapable of dealing with the issue and said they are very dedicated.

Mr Dunney pointed out that KCC receives 1800 planning applications a year; this means that staff are busy. He also said that complaints of UDs coming into the council at a rate of more than one a day “and all need to be investigated."

He also said that staff are also dealing with a review of the County Development Plan because of the issuing of new housing targets.

Mr Dunney also said the significant increase in alleged UIDs throughout the county has prompted process and procedural improvements with the aim of addressing these concerns.

These include the development of new IT systems, triaging enforcement cases as received and careful allocation of complaints by matching the complexity and severity of the case with the experience and expertise of the enforcement team, which has been increased and now has nine full time staff.

He said the team is establishing a multi-disciplinary approach, with relevant state agencies to address specific cases of alleged UD and serial offenders. 

He added that while specifics relating to alleged unauthorised development files cannot be discussed, updates in regard to the status of active cases from a broad perspective can be provided to the councillors.

Some councillors also expressed concern over GDPR legislation, which governs access to personal data. Cllr Evie Sammon argued that KCC is being over cautious and a balance needs to be found between protecting the rights of the individual and the need for an investigation. Cllr Sammon sought clarification surrounding GDPR over  listing UDs on KCC’s website “as was done in previous years”.

Mr Dunney said KCC has to comply with the letter of the law relating to GDPR. He acknowledged there is frustration added that council staff are also frustrated.

He said all UD cases are allegations until proven otherwise and there are now strict controls on the use of information on the UD register following a number of legal complaints which were received about this information being made available publicly

He said in some cases properties could not be sold because of complaints which turnout to be invalid or untrue.