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Sligo County Council - Water Connection Charges

Year Concluded: 2007

Complaint Details:

I received a complaint from a man who had applied to Sligo County Council for a water connection. The complainant was resident in County Dublin but owned a house in County Sligo. The application was for the connection of the house to the public water mains. The Council proposed to charge him €2,783, which included amounts for the supervision of water connection, road re-instatement and insurance. It also included a "development charge" in the amount of €2,000. The complainant had offered to pay the costs of the other charges (totalling €783), but had objected to paying the €2,000 development charge. The Council sought payment of the full amount of €2,783. The complainant told my Office that the house in question was an old cottage built before 1963 (before the Planning & Development Acts) and it did not have a connection to the water mains. The complainant argued that no development was taking place and no planning permission had been applied for or was needed. He argued that Sligo County Council had no right to impose a development levy in this case.

My Office asked the Council to explain the legislative basis for the €2,000 development charge and drew its attention to section 48 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000. This provides that a planning authority may "when granting a permission" under that Act, include conditions requiring the payment of a contribution in respect of public infrastructure and facilities. However, it appeared that no planning permission was sought or required and there was no granting of a permission under the Planning and Development Act in this case. While the Council made certain arguments to my Office concerning its right to apply the charge and made certain arguments concerning the fairness and equity of the charge, it did not, in my view, provide a sustainable explanation for the legislative basis for the charge. I asked the Council to review its handling of the case.

The Council subsequently informed the complainant that due to a misunderstanding of the law relating to the application of development levies, it had sought to impose a levy of €2,000 in respect of his application to connect to the Council's water supply system. The Council confirmed that no such levy was payable in his case. It arranged for his application for a connection to be processed quickly. The Council apologised to the complainant for the delay and inconvenience caused to him and, in light of this and of good customer service, it was prepared to accept a reduced fee in respect of the other charges. The Council also confirmed to my Office that that it had ceased to apply this charge in similar cases. The complainant was pleased with this outcome.

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