Farmers’ bid to downsize family home rejected

When it comes to planning a home in rural Ireland, it’s not just the younger generation who are encountering stumbling blocks in trying to build a house on their own land.

Restrictions surrounding house builds on farmland, where existing housing exists or has been sold, are preventing many older farm families from pursuing their goal of downsizing to a more suitable house that will meet their needs as they get older.

One such family in west Wicklow have been forced to rent a cottage very close to their former farmhouse, which they sold to a local family, unaware that their actions would leave them homeless.

Despite the Wicklow County Development Plan clearly stating that ‘The Planning Authority will ensure the needs of those with a bona fide necessity to live in the rural area are facilitated’, Dolores and Brendan Kennedy* are being prevented from building a smaller home on their farmland by their local authority.

The semi-retired farmers took the decision to downsize as they couldn’t manage or maintain their large farmhouse.

During the pandemic, the couple rented rooms in their home to a local family for three years. It was then agreed that this young family would buy the farmhouse, with Dolores and Brendan planning to build a more manageable, two-room, single-story house elsewhere on their land.

“We genuinely thought it was a match made in heaven. We didn’t put the house on the market as the family who were living with us are from the local area and we could see their housing need,” explains Dolores.

“When we then went to apply for planning, the council told us we wouldn’t be granted it because we had disposed of the farmhouse to a non-relative and therefore, we didn’t qualify for planning under the criteria.

“They basically told us that had we divorced or separated, declared ourselves bankrupt, were returning emigrants with a claim to the land or had a verified medical need, we’d be allowed.”

No common sense

Deputy Edward Timmins, a Fine Gael TD for Wicklow, who was a member of the county council for 20 years before his election to the Dáil last November, has been working on behalf of the couple to secure planning.

“Planning is a bugbear for a lot of people as everyone’s situation is different. The main obstacle in rural Ireland seems to be whether or not you qualify as a rural dweller which, in Wicklow’s case is a minimum of 10 years and this must ideally be from childhood. Older people living in the area for that long aren’t getting planning as easily but it isn’t an exact science,” he says.

“The other problem is people are not familiar with the requirements and the default position of planners seems to be to refuse applications, so you have to prove you qualify.

“It is a complex area and the National Planning Framework (NPF) dictates County Development Plans which means less local democracy. I was a councillor for 20 years and dealt with four different County Development Plans where I made several submissions in support of rural planning for housing. Councillors know their own areas best and should have a say in planning policy.

“The NPF has designated areas as being under urban pressure, which is in line with EU regulations but no common sense is being applied when every single townland in Co Wicklow, bar one is considered to be under urban pressure, even though some regions also avail of the likes of Clár funding which is allocated to areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation.”

Dolores recognises the work Deputy Timmins has done to help her but says the local authority is discriminating against her and her husband.

“Wicklow County Council has shown no mercy. They just keep telling us we don’t have a housing need. We don’t have any children, but if we did, they’d be allowed to build on our land, but not us,” she says.

“Nowhere is it mentioned in any plan that older farmers who want to downsize and build a more suitable home for their needs on their own land can’t do it.

We’ve stepped back from years of intensive cattle farming to hobby sheep farming and all we wanted was to be able to live on our own land in a home that would be more suitable to our needs

“We were completely naïve in the way we approached the whole thing but there was no agenda to what we did. We wrote to the council telling them we thought we had found the perfect solution both for ourselves and the young family who bought our farmhouse.

“We’re now in the position where we are renting a house from my husband’s cousin which is 500 yards down the road from where we were living.

“We’ve stepped back from years of intensive cattle farming to hobby sheep farming and all we wanted was to be able to live on our own land in a home that would be more suitable to our needs.

“The frustrating thing is Brendan is 74 and suffers from osteoarthritis and asthma and had to retire early on health grounds from his job with An Post. He should qualify on the grounds of a verified medical need but they won’t listen to us. We withdrew our planning application last April before it could be rejected.”

Irish Country Living requested an interview with Wicklow County Council’s Director of Service for Planning, as part of the overall How to Build a Home in Rural Ireland series. This request was declined.

Exceptional case

In response to a query on Dolores and Brendan’s case, a spokesperson said: “The Planning Authority cannot comment on individual cases.

“The applicants have the option of appealing the Planning Authority’s decision to refuse permission, as allowed for under planning legislation.”

According to the Wicklow County Development Plan, the county’s rural areas are regarded as ‘areas under urban influence due to their location within the catchment of Dublin, Bray, Greystones, Wicklow-Rathnew and Arklow in addition to Gorey in Co Wexford and Naas in Co Kildare’.

The plan further states: ‘In rural areas under urban influence it is necessary to demonstrate a functional economic or social requirement for housing need’.

Housing need is classified as ‘someone that previously owned a home and is no longer in possession of that home as it had to be disposed of following legal separation/divorce/repossession by a lending institution, the transfer of a home attached to a farm to a family member or the past sale of a home following emigration’.

The CDP further clarifies that ‘someone that already owns/owned a home who requires a new purpose-built specifically adapted house due to a verified medical condition and who can show that their existing home cannot be adapted to meet their particular needs’, qualifies under the housing need designation’.

Deputy Timmins believes an exceptional case should be made for Dolores and Brendan and said he is liaising with the planning department of Wicklow County Council on the matter.

“We need the new rural planning guidelines published as a matter of urgency (the current guidelines are 20 years old) and in the case of this couple, these are people who are looking to provide for themselves, they’re not asking the State to help them with housing.

“I am continuing to work on their behalf to secure planning as an exceptional case,” he concludes.

*Names have been changed at the request of the couple.