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Residents take 387-home Dalguise development in Monkstown to court

Applicants cite concerns about wastewater system capacity and impacts on bat population and protected structure in approved development

Monkstown residents have filed a judicial review over An Bord Pleanála's approval of 387 apartments at Dalguise in Monkstown, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Aodhan O’Faolain
Fri Apr 5 2024 - 13:57

Plans to build close to 390 apartments in the south Dublin suburb of Monkstown have been stalled by a High Court challenge to permission that had been granted by An Bord Pleanála.

The action has been brought by the Monkstown Road Residents Association and Richard Tempany, who lives near the proposed development, located at Dalguise, Monkstown Road, Monkstown. Permission to build 387 mainly build-to-let apartments and ancillary development was granted in February by the planning appeals board to GEDV Monkstown Owner Limited.

Concerns that the proposed development may adversely impact the local wastewater system and the nearby popular bathing area at Seapoint have been cited as the reasons behind the judicial review. The development’s potential impact on local wildlife, and in particular the bat population, have also been mentioned in the proceedings.

The action is against the board, Uisce Éireann, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Ireland and the Attorney General.

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The applicants claim the board failed to address the fact that wastewater from the development would exacerbate sewage overflows into the local wastewater system. They also claim that the board failed to determine if local bat populations, and their breeding sites, would be disturbed by the proposed development.

It is also claimed that the Minister for Housing and Local Government, in a 2022 decision regarding the site, failed to exercise his functions relating to nature conservation, nor comply with the European Union directive on habitats, by not stating if the proposed development would deliberately disturb bats.

The decision also failed to take into account that the proposed development will be built on the gardens of Dalguise House, which is a protected structure, the applicants state, adding that An Bord Pleanála also failed to properly interpret new apartment guidelines or the local development plan when it decided to grant permission.

It is further claimed that the decision is flawed because the board failed to put all documentation about the proposed development on its website, which it is obliged to do.

Represented by James Devlin SC and Alan Doyle, the applicants seek various orders and declarations from the court, including an order quashing planning permission.

They also seek orders quashing Uisce Éireann’s finding that there is capacity available in the local wastewater network to facilitate the proposed development, and the Minister’s 2022 finding relating to bat-protection measures at Dalguise.

They further seek declarations that the board has erred in law by failing to make the files about the development available on its website. Both the developer and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council are notice parties to the action.

The matter came before a vacation sitting of the High Court this week. Ms Justice Siobhán Stack deemed the application formally open and adjourned the case to a date in May.

The developer had originally sought permission to develop more than 490 units in 11 blocks ranging from between three and nine storeys, along with a childcare facility and a cafe on the site. In 2023 Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council refused to grant permission. That decision was appealed to the board, which granted permission, but reduced the overall size of the development to 387 units.

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