An Bord Pleanala has ruled that the accommodation of refugees at an apartment block in Ballinamore did not require any additional planning permission.
The Planning Board had been asked to consider a number of legal matters following a submission made last year about the accommodation of refugees and asylum seekers at the Rock Quarter in the town.
The planning authority was asked to consider if the use of the apartments, granted permission initially in 2005, was or was not development and if this was exempted or not.
Leitrim County Council had also been asked to make a declaration on the matters, and this declaration was then referred to An Bord Pleanala in April of last year.
In a recently published report, a planning inspector claimed that the appropriate period for the relevant permission at the site should have expired in June 2015, but the apartments were 'substantially complete' in 2009.
The inspector also claimed the use of apartments as accommodation for refugees or asylum seekers was 'not development' and their use as accommodation for refugees did not constitute a change of use and development has not taken place at the site by owners, Remcoll 2 Ltd.
