Green Party councillors on Bray Town Council have criticised the recent decision of An Bord Pleanala to overturn its inspector’s recommendation on the Suntec development on Herbert Rd. The Board’s inspector recommended refusing the application for 81 apartments on the Herbert Road on the grounds that “the proposed development would, by reason of its scale, density, bulk and massing be out of character with the existing settlement pattern in the area”. The Board decided not to accept the Inspector's recommendation to refuse the application and gave permission for a reduced number of 47 apartments, saying that that this development was in keeping with the provisions of the Bray Town Development Plan.

Green Party councillor and General Election candidate, Deirdre De Burca says ‘When the Bray Development Plan was drafted in late 2004, Green Party councillors on Bray Town Council made proposals that would have ensured acceptable densities, building lines and height restrictions for “infill” development in established residential areas. Unfortunately these proposals were not supported by a majority of councillors on Bray Town Council. Our proposals would have placed reasonable controls on the kind of infill developments - such as high density apartment blocks - that would be allowed in established residential areas. However, the very loose controls that are now in the Bray Development Plan will mean that many other applications such as the Suntec application can be approved into the future by Bray Town Council and An Bord Pleanala”.

De Burca says that many of the planning complaints that she and her Green Party colleagues receive concern applications for high- density infill development in established residential areas in Bray. “The councillors on Bray Town Council have not listened to the concerns of their constituents about inappropriate infill development in residential areas” says de Burca. “Our current Bray Development Plan needs to be changed to introduce tighter controls on the infill development that can be allowed”.