Irish family told to remove “visual clutter” bespoke bike shed may now just park a trailer on driveway for storing bikes instead, after planning board claims “disorderly” timber-clad structure “would set an undesirable precedent”

In the latest development from a bike shed planning row that erupted after a family in Ireland was told to remove a bespoke bike shed from their driveway, the timber-clad structure apparently constituting “visual clutter”, the family has now said they may just park a trailer outside their house instead to securely store their bicycles in a planning-friendly manner.

During the planning dispute in Cork the owner, Denis O’Regan, argued “storing bikes in an easy-to-reach secure location helps to encourage adults and children to cycle more often”, but was told to remove the “disorderly form of development” by the council, who argued it “would set an undesirable precedent”.

Now, speaking to IrishCycle.Com, Mr O’Regan admitted considering simply parking a trailer on his driveway to securely store bikes in and avoid the planning headache. Whenever we report on one of these bike shed planning disputes it is always the reply or comment that features most frequently, this particular edition attracting numerous suggestions for the solution that the family is now considering.

Stick it on a trailer chained to a ground anchor.

Oh; Its now a vehicle, so not subject to planning permission and the council can do nothing…

While looking worse than it does now…

— qwerty360 (@dvorak360) July 12, 2024

 And the wider point about planning laws, and if they should be updated to better support active travel journeys, was raised in the Irish Seanad this week during a debate on a Planning Bill.

Senator Rebecca Moynihan said the “very small issue” can have a “big impact” and explained how she is able to park her car outside her property with no issue, something that is not the case when it comes to finding a secure way to leave her cargo bike in the same place.

She said: “If I park my car, I can take up public space with my car outside of my house. I cannot take up that public space with bike bunker storage. I have both a car and a cargo bike. My car is absolutely fine to leave outside and it will take up that public space but my cargo bike cannot take up that public space. We need to make sure we are, through planning, allowing for active travel and the facilities and infrastructure that will facilitate that.

“This is a very small issue but it has a big impact in that in many places bike bunker storage, particular within small, dense urban areas requires and has been turned down for planning permission. It was raised with me in Ballintemple in Cork City. I see it has happened in Clontarf. We have huge difficulties in getting bike bunker storage.”

In reply, the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said the concerns would “be looked at with the regulations”, the ongoing Planning Bill having already been delayed beyond the summer.

The owner of the Cork bike shed, a 5.3sq m timber-clad structure to be used to store bicycles and bins on the driveway of their home in Ballintemple, questioned why you could park a large van or trailer for the purpose of storage, but smaller, more aesthetically pleasing sheds would fall foul of planning regulations.

> Cyclist threatened with €13 million fine and two years in prison over bike shed, forcing her to give up cycling

Mr O’Regan said it “appears that none of these structures will ever be granted by the planning authorities until the regulations change” and he is “currently considering my options”, one of which would be to go down the trailer route, while another would be to “submit a fresh planning application seeking retention for five years”.

The outcomes of similar cases do not look positive for the Cork family, the planning authority An Bord Pleanála having gone against its own inspector and rejected a bicycle shelter in a front garden in Dublin, despite the inspector noting that screening with appropriate landscaping could help reduce any visual impact.

In another case in Westport, IrishCycle.Com reports a family replaced a secure shed with a large trailer to store their cargo bike after a similar planning issue.

“Storing bikes in an easy-to-reach secure location helps to encourage adults and children to cycle more often,” Mr O’Regan said, pointing out the design was made to fit in with the recent extension to the property and was actually installed to reduce what the council called “visual clutter”, allowing them a storage unit to keep bins and bikes without impacting off-street parking.

He also suggested the council should be promoting use of bike storage units if it wants to meet commitments and targets on sustainable development.

However, the planning inspector called it a “highly visible standalone structure” and expressed concerns that the reduced driveway space would cause “diminishment” of road safety if cars had to be parked on the road as a result.

In February, we reported that a Dublin cyclist had been threatened with a €13 million fine and two years in prison over a bike shed dispute, the council’s threats over an “unauthorised development” forcing her to give up cycling.

Siobhán Kelly, a resident of Clontarf, a coastal suburb north of Dublin, said she was “flabbergasted, upset, and scared” after receiving a letter from Dublin City Council outlining the situation.

“At the end of our road, there’s a €65 million cycle lane being built, and we can’t use it. There’s no point building all this infrastructure when you can’t park a bike on your own property. There are two people now not on bikes because of this folly,” she told us.

We’ve also seen similar cases in the UK too, perhaps the most famous, dubbed ‘Shedgate’ by locals, seeing a family in Leicester force the city’s mayor to admit planning officers “got it wrong” when they were told to remove a homemade eco bike shed from their front garden, the structure apparently not in keeping with the Victorian character of the street. Following much support in the community and press it was soon announced the bike shed could stay.

In November, we reported that a homeowner who installed a wooden bike shed outside his one-bedroom property in a Grade II listed former workhouse in Ironbridge, near Telford, would not be allowed to keep the “very modest” storage facility after the council and a planning inspector objected to the structure, claiming it would “lead to a harmful cumulative change to the listed building”.

There is some hope however (at least on this side of the Irish Sea), after the former Conservative government in March launched an open consultation on proposed changes that could relax restrictions on planning and development rights,  including providing “further flexibilities to permit bike stores in front gardens”.

> Are bike shed planning sagas set to become a thing of the past?

It remains to be seen how, if at all, the formation of the new Labour government impacts this but the proposed changes, which would only apply to England, suggested households could be allowed to “enlarge their homes, make alterations or extensions to the roof, and construct buildings incidental to the enjoyment of the main house, such as bin and bike stores” as part of a swathe of planned amendments to planning laws.