NEWCASTLE SDLP Councillor Carmel O’Boyle has expressed her approval of the Ministerial decision to intervene having an item from a DOE Planning Service agenda at Down District Council removed.
She said: “It is too bad that elected representatives and local residents have had to go to such extremes in order to secure proper consultation on one of the most controversial planning applications that has ever been submitted for Newcastle.
“In spite of widespread opposition to this application, the Planning Department had the temerity to place this on today’s (26 November) Council agenda as an approval. Whatever happens on this site, it will have a longer journey to go than the one proposed by Oaklee.
“We are all entitled to proper, transparent and informed consultation on this application and there are too many unanswered questions about how this application could ever be approved. The traffic and access situation, the proximity to public houses, the overlooking of existing properties – all of these are obstacles that I cannot ever see a solution to, so I am baffled as to how this could ever be approved.
“Now that it has been removed from the Council’s planning schedule, perhaps we will now be given the right to question those who think this development will be good for Newcastle. Full and proper consultation will now begin.”
