An estate of 52 partially finished homes overlooking the Rock of Cashel in Co Tipperary will be demolished, the local council has decided.The decision by Tipperary County Council on Friday comes after a long-running planning row between the council and Co Laois developer Liam Campion.The houses at Ballypadeen in Cashel were meant to be holiday homes linked to a hotel that never materialised.Planning permission for the “holiday suites” on an elevated six-hectare site and a 120-bedroom four-storey over-basement hotel and leisure centre, complete with bus and car parking and a helipad, was granted to Campion in November 2004 by what was then South Tipperary County Council.Construction began in 2006 but halted the following year after the council alleged that the houses were not being built in compliance with planning permission.Campion denied breaching planning rules and, in December 2008, the claims against him were dismissed by Cashel District Court because the council could not prove its case.Complex planning and legal engagement between the parties ensued, including Campion pursuing the council for damages. Last July, a mediated settlement between him and Tipperary County Council was agreed.Since then, the council made a Part 8 planning application to remove the houses.[ At the Rock of Cashel, a ‘lovely development’ of 52 unfinished houses will be demolishedOpens in new window ]The council gave the reasons for its decision a statement released on Friday.“The units were originally granted permission only as tourism accommodation linked to a hotel development that was never built. There is currently no live planning permission for their use as housing,” the council said.It said there was a legal obligation to demolish them, following a “binding mediated settlement agreement between the Council and the landowner, which requires the removal of the structures”.It also said the site was on unzoned and unserviced land, which would conflict with planning policy. There are significant defects in the houses, which would require “substantial reconstruction”, the council said.The cost of adapting the houses for residential use would be €24 million, making them financially unviable, the council said.Addressing the housing crisis across the country, the council said it “acknowledges the ongoing housing need; however, it emphasises that housing delivery must take place on appropriately zoned and serviced lands.”In conclusion, the council said: “The project will enhance the visual amenity of the area, protect the setting of the Rock of Cashel, and address a long-standing dereliction issue.”Speaking to The Irish Times in March, Campion said he would be “disgusted” if the houses, which were about “70 per cent complete” before construction stopped in 2007, end up being razed. He is unsure what he would do with the land, but would likely sell it.Campion said he was “not sorry” for agreeing to a settlement with the council as it was “a big relief to my health ... I was so fed up with the whole thing, I would have agreed to anything.”Speaking in the Dáil in February , Independent TD Mattie McGrath said the situation “defies logic in the middle of a national housing emergency”.The Tipperary South TD said hundreds of families and individuals are on the county’s approved housing list and “here are 52 fine three-bedroom houses ... which the council seeks to knock down”.