Council"s €2m payout to hoteliers for planning refusal

Meath County Council has to pay the owners of the Station House Hotel in Kilmessan a sum of €2 million as a result of blocking a planning application by the hotel on the basis of a draft development plan. In 1999, the hotel, run by Chris Slattery and his family, applied for an extension to the premises, the conversion of a coachhouse and signal box and the construction of a three-storey apartment block and ancillary works. Meath County Council refused planning permission under the draft Meath County Development Plan 2000, which included an intention to preserve the existing route corridor of the old Dublin-Navan rail line and facilitate any future reinstatement of the Navan-Dublin rail corridor. The applicants felt that it should have been dealt with under the existing development plan and, in October 2000, claimed €5.3 million in compensation for business loss and property devaluation. An arbitrator was appointed in 2001. Meath County Council challenged the right of the Station House Hotel to seek compensation in the High Court and subsequently in the Supreme Court. The courts found that the compensation was payable by order of Judge Peart in April 2003. In May of this year, the applicants submitted a revised claim for €15 million. The arbitrator, Eoin ' Buachalla, directed that the parties engage to agree compensation, having examined the business prior to the refusal and subsequent property valuations and business loss. Meath County Council retained legal, accounting and valuation expertise and disputed every aspect of the compensation claim in advance of the full hearing on 23rd and 24th September last. The arbitrator handed down a ruling endorsing the settlement proposals in the sum of €700,000 for property devaluation and €1.3 million for business loss. Costs were awarded to the claimant and will be taxed. Meath County Manager Tom Dowling told last week"s meeting of Meath County Council that the council"s potential exposure amounts to €2 million to the claimant, Ebonwood Ltd, together with the claimant"s costs and its own legal costs. The maximum exposure to the council is expected to be less than €2.5 million. The Station House Hotel and Restaurant was previously the station building at the busy Kilmessan junction where the Dublin-Navan rail line split with the Trim and Athboy lines. 'Change here for Trim and Athboy' was a familiar cry at the station prior to its reduction to a halt status in 1948. In 1964, the line was finally taken up and the station was converted into a private residence by businessman William Harvey-Kelly. It was later acquired by Christy and Thelma Slattery who have established it as a successful hotel and restaurant business, which is especially popular for weddings, attracting couples from both the locality and Dublin. The Station House Hotel declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Meath Chronicle.