Lodge owners in dispute with luxury hotel over ‘aggressive’ graffiti hit planning setback
‘Garish’ pink painting requires permission, An Bord Pleanála rules
‘Crudely daubed slogans’
THE owners of six guest lodges who painted them a ‘garish’ bright pink with ‘aggressive’ graffiti in a long-running row with a luxury Meath hotel have fallen foul of planning rules.
An Bord Pleanála has ruled that the painting of guest lodges, located in the grounds of the four-star Johnstown Estate Hotel and Spa in Enfield, constitutes a development which requires planning permission.
It forms part of a long-running, bitter legal battle between Lefgem – the company which owns the hotel – and the six private owners of lodges within the grounds of the estate.
The dispute broke out after Lefgem acquired the hotel from a receiver in 2015 and cut off water and electricity to some lodges, on the basis that it had no legal obligation to continue to supply services to properties it did not own.
The hotel’s owner claims the deliberate defacement of the six lodges by their owners through ‘garish paint colour and aggressive graffiti’ is causing significant harm to its business.
The slogans include: ‘Water is a basic human right’ and: ‘Stop harassment now – turn services on to our family home. Now let us live in peace.’
In turn, views of the lodges have been restricted by 26 shipping containers as well as hoarding and advertising placed by Lefgem.
The ruling by An Bord Pleanála overturns a determination by Meath County Council that the graffiti was exempted from planning permission.
Lefgem, which also owns 32 of the 40 lodges next to the hotel, claimed the defacement and crude paintworks to the six other lodges was carried out in order to disrupt the operation of the Johnstown Estate. It also claimed the bright pink paint and ‘crudely daubed slogans’ are inconsistent with the character of the 18th-century Johnstown House.
The company said the garish paint, murals and graffiti were not only devaluing surrounding properties, but were having a detrimental effect on the commercial operation of the estate as a premier leisure and hospitality destination.
Unlike typical vandalism to a property, Lefgem claimed the vandalism to the lodges was carried out by their own owners.
‘The possibility of crudely daubed slogans, slanders and protest messages being availed of in the context of neighbour disputes, planning disputes and boundary disputes is clearly something that is not conducive to proper planning,’ the firm added. The company said the owners of the six lodges were in clear breach of the original grant of planning permission relating to an agreed colour scheme for the buildings.
However, the owners of the lodges claim the painting and wording on their buildings is not vandalism as they had consented to it. They claimed any devaluation to their properties was the direct result of the actions of the hotel’s owners by cutting off essential services and placing shipping containers near their properties.
One of the lodge owners, Gerry O’Gorman, claimed he had been unable to reside in his property due to harassment by Lefgem.
Mr O’Gorman said he had declined an offer of €40,000 by the company for it to purchase his lodge, which he had bought for €485,000 in 2007.
He claimed that the slogans had been painted as a result of ‘exasperation and stress’.
Mr O’Gorman said they had also given an undertaking to Meath County Council that they would remove the slogans if the shipping containers and advertising hoardings were also removed.
An inspector with An Bord Pleanála said the lodges did not appear to be in functional use, while the open space around them was unkempt and overgrown with evidence of vermin.
The inspector, Patricia-Marie Young, said there was also evidence essential services to the six lodges had been disconnected.
In separate but related rulings, An Bord Pleanála issued findings that the use of the advertising hoardings and shipping containers also represent developments that require planning permission.
Last July, Lefgem, which is controlled by businessman Barry English, secured a temporary High Court injunction restraining three of the lodge owners from generating loud noise near the hotel.