High Court gives go ahead for Southgate apartments challenge

On Monday the High Court gave Protect East Meath the go ahead to challenge the grant of planning permission for a proposed development of 201 apartments at Southgate on the outskirts of Drogheda

Location of South Gate development
Map showing location of proposed development

The grounds of challenge include the following alleged issues with the decision:

  1. Planning application did not address the new county development plan which was adopted after the plans were submitted
  2. Material contravention of the development plan relating to car parking
  3. Serious under provision of accessible car parking
  4. Serious under provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
  5. Serious under provision of cycle parking which the Board failed to lawfully deal with in the decision
  6. Lack of capacity in the water network
  7. Failure to engage with traffic studies submitted by observers and failure to deal with significant environmental impacts from serious traffic congestion in Julianstown
  8. Failure by applicant to supply required information for environmental assessment
  9. Failure to assess impacts of road noise on the development
  10. Failure to assess compliance with EU water quality requirements

The case returns to court on 21 February for further directions.