Locals happy as planning board rejects homes at park
CONTROVERSIAL plans to build hundreds of homes beside a major Dublin park have been rejected by an Bord Pleanála.
The board quashed its earlier decision allowing the construction of 104 houses and 432 apartments by Crekav Trading DP Ltd. on pitches beside St Anne’s Park and St Paul’s school.
The reversal came following a legal challenge by a group of locals and environmentalists expressing concerns over the impact of the site on the area.
Yesterday An Bord Pleanála refused permission for the development, citing a lack of information on the potential impact it may have on migratory birds in the area.
The 15-acre site was owned by school trustees the Vincentian Fathers before it was sold in 2015 to the construction company. Local sports clubs including Clontarf GAA and Clontarf FC use the facilities for their underage teams and both were opposed to the development.
In April of this year an Bord Pleanála announced that it had granted permission for the development under the ‘fast track’ scheme introduced by the Department of Housing.
The scheme was signed in last year by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to allow for permission for sites of more than 100 homes to go directly to the board, bypassing local planning authorities.
Local Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who was heavily involved in the campaign, expressed his delight at the news.
Describing the decision as ‘HUGE NEWS!’ he stated that the local community and protest groups ‘have finally won’. He tweeted that he didn’t ‘believe in allowing developers to build eight-storey apartment blocks on sports pitches that are zoned’.
On the ‘I love St Anne’s’ Facebook page locals reacted with delight at the decision to halt development plan.
One local woman said she shed ‘tears of joy’ at the news and added that the community was ‘indebted’ to those behind the movement.
The planned development was also opposed by Dublin City Council with its chief Owen Keegan recommending that the plan be scrapped over concerns on its impact on migrating Brent geese who make the fields their home each winter.