Planning regulator contacts An Bord Pleanála about potential conflict of interest over Cork site
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The planning regulator has been in contact with An Bord Pleanála over recent allegations about a board member’s potential conflict of interest and a failure to declare assets.
The regulator’s office has no remit to investigate specific allegations in a planning authority, but a spokesperson confirmed that contact was made “to confirm procedures are in place with regard to the making of relevant returns from board members”.
Since the allegations against Paul Hyde, the deputy chair of An Bord Pleanála, first surfaced earlier this month, there has been no indication that any inquiry will take place to determine whether any laws have been broken or ethical issues arise.
The matter centres on a decision by a subdivision of the board, chaired by Mr Hyde, to deny planning permission for the development of 191 apartments on the old Hewitts distillery site in Blackpool, Cork City.
The application, by the company Eichsfeld Ltd, which is owned by Cork businesspeople, was made under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) legislation, a fast-track planning process which bypasses the local authority and goes straight to An Bord Pleanála.
The minutes of the meeting on March 9, at which the decision was taken, show that no conflict of interest was declared by any of the board members. It later emerged that Mr Hyde has a 25% shareholding in a company that owns a site 50m away from the distillery site. His father owns the remainder of the shares in the company, H2O.
Mr Hyde had not mentioned the Blackpool site or any other property interests when filing a standard declaration of interests in January this year.
The has learned that judicial review proceedings into the decision are to be initiated by the developer but it is not yet clear whether Mr Hyde’s circumstances will feature in any such challenge.
When contacted by the about the matter earlier this month, a spokesperson for the board referenced the relevant ethics legislation and said the board “had nothing further to add” to that.
A complaint has been made to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) about the matter but there has been no indication that any investigation is to be launched.
Mr Hyde has not commented on it since it first emerged.
The Office of the Planning Regulator is currently reviewing systems and procedures in planning authorities, including the sections under which members of An Bord Pleanála must declare any interests in property.
“The OPR does not, however, have a role in examining the details of individual declarations or disclosures made by board members,” according to a spokesperson for the regulator. “This would be a matter for An Bord Pleanála in the first instance.”
Declarations of interest for officeholders in planning authorities are governed by section 147 of the Planning Act 2000 which makes it an offence to fail to declare any such interests with a number of caveats that can be applied in defence of any officeholder.
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