AN appeal has been lodged against planning permission for a new development in Raphoe, with concerns raised over heritage, landscape protection and potential impacts on the Beltany Stone Circle.
Planning permission for the development at Tops Farm was given the green light by Donegal County Council.
The application, submitted by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, includes the construction of a new transfer to laboratory building, instillation of a wastewater treatment system, enclosed yard, new gates, access roadway and modification and associated site works to the existing farmyard and entrance.
The appellant, Mary Nolan, is a qualified archaeologist and historian, who lives at The Tops, Raphoe.
In an appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála she outlined that despite having a “good business case”, the proposed site is the wrong location for a number of reasons, most notably the impact on the cultural and heritage landscape.
Ms Nolan cited the County Development Plan where there is an objective to protect existing access to heritage sites. She outlined that the proposed new access to the site would “obliterate” an existing small car park used
by visitors to the internationally acclaimed Beltany Stone
Circle.
The appeal also outlines that the site is located in an area of “high scenic amenity” and that the proposed plans do not safeguard the cultural landscape significance of this areas which they claim is one of the most important areas in the county, which she described as ‘the Newgrange of Donegal’.
“The documents submitted by the applicant make no effort, including the visual assessment report, to assess the impact of the proposal on this cultural landscape which the planning authority is bound to respect, otherwise the statutory policies contained its county development plan remain simply as words in a document to be ignored on a whim,” the appeal reads.
Ms Nolan also argued that plans to hide the development by planting trees proves that it would be a “strident intrusion” when viewed from the stone circle.
“It is our contention that is a proposal either to be ‘dug into’ a site or hidden from view by dense planting, then it shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
In the appeal Ms Nolan also outlined a number of national commitments to recognise and protect sites of cultural or natural heritage that she said cannot by “whitewashed” by Donegal County Council.
Ms Nolan also noted that the applicant and the planning authority both “treat the proposal as if it were simply another farm structure, to be used for farm activity and, therefore, benign”.
However, she believes the proposal introduces a use into the location which is alien in the agriculturalresidential neighbourhood.
“It is an industrialcommercial undertaking whereby customers pay for a service and is, therefore, economic development.”
The appellant said that the proposal as such contravenes current policies and objectives contained in the County Development Plan.
“In Ireland generally we don’t have a good record of looking after our heritage and, too often, development has trumped over heritage.
“In Donegal, while we can do with plenty more development, it must not be at the expense of thousands of years of heritage which has bequeathed us the cultural heritage of the River Deele valley,” she concluded.
