The controvertial planning appeal was voted on by 10 out of 11 An Bord Pleanala members

An Bord Pleanla ruled nine-to-one against Sean Dunne’s €1.5 billion high-rise development in Ballsbridge.

The near-unanimous vote raises further questions as to why Dublin city council ever approved the billionaire businessman’s plans for a massive residential, retail and office development on the seven-acre site of the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels.

A number of objectors are now calling on John Gormley, the environment minister, to investigate the city planners’ handling of the application.

Labour councillors in Dublin want an independent inquiry. Kevin Humphreys said: “There is a growing gap between the development plan, which was drawn up to defend residents’ interests, and the decisions being made by officials.

“A number of recent cases suggest that officials’ interpretation of the plan are becoming more liberal. In the case of Dunne’s application, it’s difficult to understand the logic behind approving it.”

Dunne’s vision for a cluster of high-rise buildings set around a 32-storey tower was embraced by the council’s senior planner, Kieran Rose, who recommended that the scheme be granted permission. In a report for the city manager, Rose described the scheme’s “diamond-cut” tower as “exciting.”

But Tom Rabbette, the board’s inspector who chaired an often heated month-long hearing into the project, found Dunne’s scheme contravened the local development plan.

The board’s final assessment was that the scheme’s “scale, massing and height” constituted a “gross over-development and over-intesification of use” of the site and said it was “not satisifed that the proposed development would bring about a high-quality environment for future occupants”. It also ruled that the development constituted a “radical change in the urban form of the area [and would be] at odds with the established character of Ballsbridge”.

A full appeals board typically only sits on decisions of strategic or national importance, with most of the 5,000 to 6,000 cases adjudicated every year decided by four or fewer members.

The Sunday Times understands 10 of the 11-member board voted. Only Margaret Byrne, formerly a principal officer in the Department of the Environment, was absent. The chairman, John O’Connor,was previously an assistant secretary in the same department

Mountbrook Homes, Sean Dunne’s construction company, announced on Friday night that it intends to submit a revised application “in accordance with the primarily residential zoning” of the Ballsbridge site. Dunne criticised the planning system as “lengthy, expensive, confusing and unworkable”.