Ards and North Down Council has ordered Northern Ireland Water to take down an “ugly” coastal safety fence in Bangor, after a groundswell of local objections.
At the council's recent meeting of its Planning Committee, elected members rejected an application by NI Water to retain a fence surrounding a pumping station on the coast just north of Seacourt Lane, Bangor.
The fence and gate was erected by NI Water in March 2019, without planning permission, to deal with the potential health and safety risks of persons falling from the coastal path wall five metres down to the concrete below. The council itself had asked the public water facility to create a health and safety plan at the pumping station. No such accidents have been reported at the site to date.
Read more: Ards North Down rep's say Dublin coastal funding 'collaboration' with all Ireland economy
At last August’s Planning Committee meeting council planning officers recommended to elected representatives that the fence stay up, despite 51 objections from locals, MLA’s and councillors. Issues raised were the principle of development on the North Down coastal path, the design and appearance of the fence, the impact on the character of the area, as well as on landscape features and environmental quality, and the impact on biodiversity.
None of the statutory or non-statutory consultees that the council had to engage with objected to the application. Councillors however expressed doubts about the fence - some describing it as “ugly” - and the application was deferred with a “minded to refuse” proposal, and a request for NI Water to attend a future meeting bringing forward plans for a “more aesthetically pleasing fence”.
At the recent Planning Committee, UUP Councillor Carl McClean welcomed legal advice given to the council, which suggested policy reasons against the application. He proposed elected representatives refuse the retention of the fence. Councillor McClean said: “Legal advice, as with planning policy, cannot be expected to always be in accordance with common sense. But this clearly is in accordance with common sense - that strain that allows us to refuse this thankfully.”
He added: “It is a comfort I hope to members that there is not a liability on this for us, we are simply here to consider an application under planning reasons, and that liability, if it lies anywhere, would be on others. The legal advice did not stray into the interesting question of whether a potential claim should cause members to vote other than they would have voted under the planning guidance.”
He added: “I am very sympathetic to NI Water’s position. They were acceding to a request from us to put something up and fix an issue. But ultimately they are always going to go very heavy on health and safety, and be very concerned with liability. I think we took that far too much at face value. If you consider the dangers anywhere along the coastal path, around the marina itself, at many many different points - there is nothing more or less dangerous.
“So if we were to follow our own reasoning and rationale, and extend that towards the coastal path, we would be having a newly revamped greenway that was completely shuttered off from the sea, to keep ourselves safe from claims.”
He said: “I think the public would have been concerned if we were in a situation where you could build something without permission, create a potential risk, then fix that without planning permission, and then create obvious harm to what is a beautiful, protected part of the environment. And then hope to get that through planning under threat of some sort of shared liability.
“NI Water can’t be expected to do anything other than have concerns about their own liability and safety, I understand that, but it is our job to be concerned about the visual amenity of this area.”
READ NEXT:
-
Crawfordsburn Primary School demolition plan recommended for approval
-
Ards North Down Council appeals to Stormont to give them regeneration powers
-
Ards and North Down summer schemes row sees Council accused of "failing families"
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here. To sign up to our FREE newsletters, see here.
