Plan for two new hotels blocked over impact on roosting habitat for bats
PLANNING permission has been refused for two hotels due to the potential impact on a roosting habitat for protected bats and on Dublin Airport’s operations.
Fingal County Council has refused plans by Hugh Curran’s The Coach Ltd for the hotels – one six storeys high and the other five storeys – on the site of The Coachman’s Inn in Swords, Co. Dublin.
The site has been the location to an inn or hostelry for more than 250 years ‘and has existed in numerous forms over the past two centuries’. It is located 1.5km from Dublin Airport.
The proposal for nearly 200 rooms, between both hotels, faced no local opposition, but in a wideranging refusal, the council has stated that one of the reasons for the decision is that the hotels scheme would be prejudicial to the operations of Dublin Airport.
On the impact to local bats – protected under the EU Habitats Directive – the council said the proposal has the potential to disturb their roosting habitat, .
The Department of Heritage told the council that the bat roost is located in a mature horse chestnut tree on site that contains the common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle species.
In refusing planning permission, the council has stated that the applicant has failed to provide justification and mitigations for the removal of the horse chestnut tree containing the bat roost.
In the council planner’s report, which recommended a refusal, it was stated that the issue of the bat roost removal was also of concern to the council ecologist.
The planner’s report concluded that the justification and mitigation measures for the removal of the bat roost have not been demonstrated. In its refusal, the council stated that the proposed development fails to accord with a report concerning the operation of public safety zones around Dublin Airport.
It also said that the proposal has not satisfactorily demonstrated that it would not have any negative impacts on the operation of Dublin Airport.
The council, in its decision to refuse permission, also concluded that the height, scale and massing of the proposed development was excessive and would not sufficiently respect the existing setting and scale of development in the vicinity of the subject site and have an overbearing impact on the existing Coachman’s Inn.
The planning authority also concluded that the proposed development would endanger public safety by reason of serious traffic hazard as the required sight-lines can’t be achieved.
The council, in its refusal, also said the development’s proposed location, where particular vigilance is required, would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard due to its nature and scale and distraction of drivers. The council said the proposed development’s proximity to a major national road and Transport Infrastructure Ireland-managed junction would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard. It also cited obstruction of road users due to the movement of the extra traffic generated.
A report by Downey Planning stated that the hotels were to operate independently and were designed to tailor to the threeand four-star tourist markets.