Major changes on way for council's planning dept

A wide-ranging restucturing of the planning department of Meath County Council and profound changes in the way the council operates are among the recommendations following an independent review in the wake of a bungled land deal in Ashbourne which has cost the council €4 million. The changes have been called for in a deeply critical report on the council's granting of an effectively unworkable contract to a development company in Ashbourne which led to the €4 million High Court award against the council earlier this year. The report, delivered by an independent review group set up following the Darlington Properties controversy relating to a land deal in Ashbourne, identified serious shortcomings in the council's handling of the case. and said the affair had damaged the council's reputation as a result. The report identified that councilors were not informed of the events surrounding the Darlington case. members of the council were due to debate the review group report at a special council meeting yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. The review group said that failure of process, competency and product within the planning area and beyond were "matters of concern to the people of County Meath and the wider public". It issued 25 recommendations aimed at addressing organisational issues identified and to "help rebuild public confidence". The controversy stemmed from a contract with Darlington Properties Ltd. The firm contracted to buy a piece of council-owned land in Ashbourne in 2006 and was to be provided with a distributor road from the site to the centre of Ashbourne. However, Darlington discovered that the council had granted permission for a separate development on that same route. The company sued the council and Mr Justice Peter Kelly awarded €4 million damages to Darlington because of "bungling and ineptitude of a high order" by the council. He ruled that the council, following "an extraordinary tale of error after error", was guilty of negligent misrepresentation and breach of duty of care to the company in relation to the contract of May 2006 for the purchase of the Ashbourne site. This week's independent report on a review carried out by former Louth County Manager John Quinlivan and Gerry Kearney, a former secretary-general and former assistant secretary with the Revenue Commissioners, delivered hard-hitting criticism of the council on many aspects of its handling of the case. Meath County Manager Tom Dowling this week responded to the report by saying that while it made for very difficult reading, he accepted the findings and pledged to implement all of the 25 recommendations in the report. He indicated four major changes in the running of the council, including a restructuring of the planning department, a full audit of any unaudited planning processes and procedures, new processes to deal with major contracts involving disposal of council assets, and the measurement of departmental performance in the council. In its findings, the review said that events leading to the court case spanned almost a decade and pointed to deficiencies in a number of areas, including governance control by senior management, senior management involvement and control over key processes and events such as the disposal of the site to Darlington; communication, information management and sharing within and beyond the planning department, and "basic managerial competence and practice within the planning department". The review group said it believed that had there been a stronger corporate involvement with the work of the planning department, it was likely that the problem with the proposed road would have been identified years earlier and dealt with in consultation with Darlington. The report said line management in planning had sought to put an emphasis on inadequacy of resources, pressure in Celtic Tiger years and high staff turnover. However, the report said that managerial staff levels in planning over the period had increased six-fold.