Planning board received 22 Westmeath appeals in 2019

Almost 4 per cent of planning decisions made by Westmeath County Council during 2019 were appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

However the county accounts for just 1.1 per cent of the total number of decisions referred to the planning board over the course of the year, the 2019 report of An Bord Pleanála has revealed.

Released on Tuesday of last week, the figures show that the number of decisions made by Westmeath County Council was 568.

Of those, 22 were appealed – a rate of 3.9 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, nationally, the greatest numbers of appeals were made against authorities in urban areas: 13.4 per cent of the appeals made by Dublin County Council were appealed; 11.9 per cent of the Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown decisions were appealed; and 11.6 per cent of those made in Fingal.

Of the 22 appeals from Westmeath lodged with An Bord Pleanála in 2019, 19 were decided by year end.

In 37 per cent of cases, the decision of the county council was actually reversed; in 42 per cent of cases, the decision was varied and in 21 per cent, the decision of the county council was upheld by the Bord Pleanála inspectors.