Grange Developments Ltd v Dublin County Council (No. 3)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1989
• Docket Number: [1988 No. 639 SS]
• Date: 01 January 1989
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

Grange Developments Ltd

and

Dublin County Council (No. 3)

Claim for compensation for refusal of permission - Planning authority undertaking to grant permission -Whether arbitrator should have regard to undertaking in determining compensation - Whether undertaking sufficiently precise - Whether development plan contravened - Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 1977 (S.I. No. 65) - Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 (No. 28), ss. 55-58.

In the course of an arbitration to determine the compensation payable to the claimant on the refusal of planning permission under s. 55 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963, the respondent planning authority undertook to grant planning permission to the claimant subject to 22 conditions. The arbitrator made an interim award of compensation in favour of the claimant, but stated a case for the decision of the High Court as to the validity of the undertaking and provided for a specific sum of additional compensation to be payable if the undertaking was held to be invalid. The claimant argued that the undertaking was invalid on the grounds that it was vague and lacked precision and that it contravened the development plan for the area in that it did not require the reservation of part of the lands free from development for the construction of a proposed motorway. Held by the High Court (Murphy J.), in answering the case stated, 1, that the fact that the undertaking was sufficiently concise to enable the arbitrator to place a specific value on it indicated the necessary degree of...