The promoters of a privately owned heritage centre beside Burt woods in Co Donegal have defended their plans against concerns raised locally about planning applications for a number of houses in or close to the ancient woodland.
The heritage centre, which is being expanded and has secured grants of £490,000, is located in an old church in Burt, about five miles from Derry on the Letterkenny road.
An exhibition area tells the story of the nearby ring fort, Grianan Ailigh. Work has now started on a new building to be linked to the existing one, and the new centre is described as "a flagship project" by Bord Failte. Funding amounted to 37 per cent of eligible costs.
The project has proved controversial, not because of the planned centre, but because of planning applications for houses on land bought by the Grianan of Aileach Interpretative Centre Ltd.
Just under 12 acres of Burt Wood was sold to the company in 1995 by the owners of Burt House, Andy and Breeda O'Loghlin. They believed that by selling the wood to a grantaided heritage centre, they were ensuring no development could take place and the area would be a nature reserve open to the public. The price paid was £30,000, the going rate for agricultural land.
This parcel of land is a short distance from the heritage centre. Woodland pathways and picnic tables were subsequently put in, for which a Leader grant of £17,250 or 50 per cent of the cost was received. The opening of the woods to the public was welcomed.
Local opposition began to grow with the appearance of planning applications for houses. Gardai had to be called to a number of protests when workmen moved into the area.
An Taisce objected to the felling of trees in certain areas of the wood. The owners have pointed out in a letter to An Taisce they were never ordered by either the planning office or gardai to stop work and were never under any legal obligation to do so. Work was stopped on several occasions, they say, when they were asked to do so by gardai or planning officials.
Since the O'Loghlins sold the land, four separate applications for houses have been lodged. Two were for almost the same site, the first having been refused. While none was lodged in the name of Grianan of Aileach Interpretative Centre, the three sites are all in the area of land sold by the O'Loghlins to the company, and are either in the woods or very close to the boundary.
The main promoter and one of five directors of the company, Mr Willie Holmes, told The Irish Times he was working hard to bring tourism to Donegal by developing the new heritage centre. He pointed out that it had received the backing of various funding agencies.
The Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, made the announcement last year of £250,000 from Interreg EU funds and £100,000 from the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) for the new building. The existing centre had already received £140,000 from the IFI.
Mr Holmes said he was limited in what he could say publicly because of a libel action he is taking against individuals who have opposed his plans. A number of the other directors are family members.
In relation to tree-felling, Mr Holmes said trees were only cut down to put in walkways. "We didn't do any clearing," he said.
On a visit to the woodland, it is evident from stumps that some trees have been cut in recent years in areas away from the paths. In April a number of smaller trees along the edge of the wood were cut close to a site where planning permission for a house is being sought.
Mr Holmes said no member of his family or the company has any planning applications for houses with Donegal County Council. He pointed out that one planning application was lodged two years ago but permission was not granted.
However, applications subsequently lodged by different people for two separate sites were only made possible because Mr Holmes's company made the land available.
In one of these cases, the site crosses the boundary of the woods, and planning permission was granted last year. Planning file documents show that Mr Holmes was involved in discussions with the council in relation to access to the site. This issue has since been disputed by another land-owner in the area.
In the case of the application lodged two years ago for two houses, in the name of a relative of Mr Holmes, Donegal County Council has confirmed that it is still "active" because information requested has not been given, but the application has not been withdrawn. This site is fully within the woods.
The third application is now being considered by Donegal County Council. This is for a house on a site close to the boundary of the woods. Council planners have requested further information from the applicant.
Mr O'Loghlin is concerned about the planning permission granted last year because it is on a site where the council refused permission a year earlier.
Donegal County Council's executive planner, Mr Jim Harley, told The Irish Times one reason planning permission was granted last year but refused the year before was that the first application was for two houses and the second for one. Also, separate access to it meant it was not linked to a "suburban-type" development in an adjoining field.
If this access was unavailable, the planning permission would be worthless, he said.
Mr Harley pointed out that one of the conditions of planning permission for the new heritage centre required the company to submit a management plan "for the preservation of all wooded areas (especially Burt Wood) within ownership of the applicant" even though these were outside the boundary of the development site.
The first such plan submitted by the company was rejected by the council, and a second was accepted at the end of April this year. Mr Harley said the planning application submitted two years ago for two houses was totally within the area covered by the woodland management plan and "development there would not be accommodated".
He accepted that part of the site where planning permission was granted last year also fell within the area covered by the plan.
More than 200 local people signed a petition calling for no houses to be allowed in the woods.