Waterford City and County Council has confirmed that there is a single appeal to An Bord Pleanála regarding the Planning Scheme for Waterford North Quays.
In a statement, the Council says they "would apologise for misleading the public in this context but did so on foot of a confirmation from An Bord Pleanala that this was the case."
It went on to say, "for the record, An Bord Pleanala issued an email at 16:50 on Thursday the 8th of March stating "The Board has not received any valid appeals in relation to the North Quays SDZ". This information was conveyed in the public domain at the monthly Council meeting On Thursday evening in good faith.
This email, however, was countermanded by a subsequent email today March 9th at 14:43 stating "I’m sorry to inform you that the Board has in fact received an appeal in relation to the SDZ.
It was received on 6th March but unfortunately due to the large volume of post being received each day it was only delivered to 'the appropriate' desk this afternoon"."
Michael Walsh, Chief Executive of Waterford City and County Council said "it is regrettable that an appeal has been lodged, as the positive message deriving from there being no appeal would be very valuable in its own right.
Notwithstanding this, the Council is satisfied that the scheme as proposed is robust and the appeal will have no impact in the context of timeframes, with the end of Quarter 1, 2019 remaining the objective for commencement of construction on the site.
