Irish Daily Mail

Serial objectors are accused of a ‘shakedown’ by building f irm

- By Helen Bruce Courts Correspond­ent helen.bruce@dailymail.ie

TWO serial objectors to planning applicatio­ns have lost a bid to strike out a case brought against them by a constructi­on firm, which has accused them of a ‘shakedown’.

High Court Judge Richard Humphreys said Glenveagh Homes had contended that an insurance consultant and a retired bank clerk had made a large number of planning observatio­ns and appeals in a bid to ‘extort’ Glenveagh to buy land at an inflated price.

Glenveagh had sued the pair for up to €8million in damages for the costs it alleged it had incurred.

The two defendants, Pat Lynch and Denise Leavy of Batterstow­n, Proudstown, Co. Meath had applied to strike out the case.

They had claimed that the house builder’s case was a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participat­ion), which the judge described as a type of lawsuit designed to silence critics.

They claimed the proceeding­s were calculated to intimidate, persecute and punish them for making valid planning submission­s.

They noted that Glenveagh was seeking ‘gross excessive damages of €8million’ and a permanent injunction restrainin­g them from making any submission­s or observatio­ns on any future planning applicatio­ns by Glenveagh.

In response, Glenveagh said the case was a matter which required evidence to be given at trial, before a court could fairly reach any decision.

‘If a court makes any orders, it will have done so on the basis of evidence before it,’ it stated.

‘In such circumstan­ces, the defendants could not legitimate­ly claim to be intimidate­d, persecuted or punished, in circumstan­ces where the court would have found a civil wrong has occurred.’ The constructi­on firm also said that the defendants had made further observatio­ns on its planning applicatio­ns after it had launched its case against them.

The court has previously seen a sworn statement from Glenveagh’s chief executive, Stephen Garvey, in which he said the proceeding­s concerned a ‘business dispute’, which the defendants had wrongly characteri­sed as being a SLAPP.

He alleged their planning submission­s had been made under ‘fictitious aliases’ and were ‘highly targeted’ at Glenveagh’s developmen­ts.

Mr Garvey said an estate agent had approached Glenveagh asking it to purchase

Mr Lynch’s lands at Clonmagadd­en, Navan, Co. Meath, for a price ‘well in excess of open market value’.

The developer refused to buy the site but later met Mr Lynch in an attempt to negotiate a sale, following which an agreement in principle was reached for a price of €7.8 million, Mr Garvey added.

Around the time Glenveagh was refusing to pay over and above market value, planning observatio­ns began to be lodged in the name of Denis Leavy, D Leavy and DM Leavy, he said.

From March 2021 to June 2023, Mr Garvey said, the ‘fictional/contrived pseudonyms’, and later Mr Lynch, filed 17 observatio­ns and five appeals on planning applicatio­ns.

The defendants had objected to 35% of 49 Glenveagh planning applicatio­ns, most of which were outside the defendants’ locality, he alleged.

He said the pair’s ‘campaign’ had led to ‘considerab­le, unexpected difficulty’ with the delivery of residentia­l schemes in Meath, Dublin, Louth, Westmeath, Kildare and Waterford.

He said the firm had engaged with the defendants to try to stop the planning submission­s, but they ‘continue to be a nuisance to our business’.

Judge Humphreys said the case raised complex issues that were more appropriat­e to a trial. The case will be listed for further mention again later this month.

‘Submission­s made under aliases’

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