Alarm bells at Bray Head housing plan

April 1998

FEARS were raised for the future of a famous local landmark this week following a planning application for a major new residential development at the foot of Bray Head.

Lodge last Friday with Bray Urban District Council, the application from McInerney Construction Limited, Townsend Street, Dublin, seeks permission for 42 houses and 28 duplex apartments on an 8.2 acre greenfield site adjoining St Andrew’s/Newcourt School.

The application proposes to provide access to the new development via a new roundabout to be built at the existing Boghall/Vevay Road junction.

Coming so soon after the recent application for a 158 unit residential development in the grounds of nearby Presentation College, the McInerney application is bound to raise concerns over encroaching development onto Bray Head, the town’s most famous physical landmark, preservation of which has been set as a major objective by the local council.

Although the proposed development would be sited at the foot of the famous feature, the site is zoned as educational, which does not preclude residential development on the land.

Cllr John McManus said this week he would be totally opposed to the application for which he believed there was no justification.

Expressing her concern, Cllr Anne Ferris said this week that the same concerns which had arisen in relation to the Presentation scheme would also apply to this one, particularly the density of the proposed scheme and the unsuitability of multi-storey duplex apartments for this area.