©/Lorcan Doherty Photography - June 21th 2012.
Ministers Foster and McCausland appear to be more than satisfied with the Station Square project but others might wonder if they and/or their officials/agencies are handing over public funds willy-nilly for public realm projects that have been exposed to inadequate supervision.
Perhaps the Planning Minister, Alex Attwood, ought to ask his officials to look at a planning process that permitted the creation of public realm works with a maritime theme that block a maritime view.
C/2012/0260/LDP was online on 23 June but it was missing from the Planning Service website when the first NALIL blog on this topic was published; it is currently absent!
Some of the details in the LDP online application for a Certificate of Lawfulness were barely legible but I had obtained copies from the divisional planning office.
The general layout and the boundary line drawings, in my opinion, fail to show the 'precise nature' of the works being undertaken yet the Planning Service awarded a Certificate of Lawfulness. The application form [pdf file] clearly requests 'a detailed description of all such operations' along with 'such plans to scale or drawings as are necessary to show their precise nature'.
Planning permission was subsequently sought and given for the canopy and for the masts but, as far as I can see, no permission was sought for the prow, a feature that rises to ten feet above the pavement and is dramatically higher than the flower/shrubbery-bed that preceded it. I also understand that permission has yet to be given for the lighting standards
