Michael Bailey’s Bovale Developments is contesting a demand by Fingal Co Council to pay €1 million in a financial contribution as part of a planning permission for 530 residential units in north Dublin.
The council granted planning permission last month to Bovale Developments UC for 530 apartments and one creche across four blocks at Barrysparks and Crowscastle, Swords.
Three of the blocks in the ‘Barrysparks Large Scale Residential Development (LRD)’ will rise to nine storeys with the fourth seven storeys.
Bovale is to sell 106 units to the council as part of its requirements to provide social housing.
However, Bovale has appealed one condition to An Coimisiún Pleanala against the council demanding €1 million to the council in lieu of open space provision.
The council states it payable as there is a shortfall of 18,366 sqm in open space.
It is also requiring the developers to pay €6.25 million in developer planning contributions towards public infrastructure. That condition is not under appeal by the applicants.
The appeal states that the LRD scheme includes 4,059 sqm of proposed public open space.
On behalf of Bovale Developments UC, planning consultants, BMA Planning contend the financial contribution has been incorrectly applied “and we request that this condition be deleted by An Coimisiún Pleanála”.
The appeal states that the quantity of public open space provided within the application accords with the requirements of the Development Plan .
The appeal adds that in recent cases, ACP has rejected the council’s reliance on open space requirements derived from a 2.5 hectares/1,000 population metric and confirmed that any contribution must be strictly tied to a demonstrable shortfall against the 12-15 per cent site area based standard.
Michael Bailey along with his brother Tom were disqualified from acting as company directors in 2013 by the High Court after finding they were guilty of “particularly serious” misconduct and fraud.
Michael Bailey returned as a director to the business in December 2024.
