A High Court judge will give a decision next week in a widow’s injunction application against developer Greg Kavanagh and his company Beakonford Ltd over alleged trespass on the woman’s property in Ashford, Co Wicklow.
Mr Kavanagh denies Oonagh Stokes’s claims of interference with land around her home, Inchanappa House, as part of the company’s plans to build 98 new homes on land it owns next to her property.
The bitter dispute has resulted in three separate sets of proceedings.
The first was brought by Mr Kavanagh and Beakonford against Mrs Stokes over what he says is an attempt by her to extract a €6 million payment from him to secure the withdrawal of a planning appeal against the development brought by another person. Mr Kavanagh says the appellant was an agent for Ms Stokes.
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That case remains to be heard but, in the meantime, Beakonford was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála for its 98 homes. Mrs Stokes then brought a separate High Court action against the board challenging its decision. That also remains to be heard.
Just before that case was brought, Mrs Stokes also brought proceedings claiming Mr Kavanagh and his company had, among other things, interfered with the driveway up to her home and ripped down a fence between the properties. She also claimed Mr Kavanagh had engaged in intimidation and trespass.
He denies her claims and says both of Mrs Stokes’s proceedings are aimed at delaying the housing development and that she had threatened that it would never be allowed to go ahead unless she was part of it.
As part of that case, she sought an injunction preventing any further trespass and interference with her property and right of way.
Following submissions from counsel for both sides on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr Justice Max Barrett reserved his decision to next week.
Earlier, following suggestions on Tuesday by counsel from both sides, the judge had offered to visit the Inchanappa site.
This was in order to look at an area of the dispute in relation to access to a communications mast and water tank located on land next to both the Stokes and Beakonford properties. Mrs Stokes is the owner of a company that owns the land on which the mast is located.
However, when it was agreed that videos could be shown of the proposed access routes to the mast, filmed by both sides, there was no longer any need for a visit by the judge. The videos were played on Tuesday and the court heard Mr Kavanagh was prepared to put down hard-core stones to facilitate the access route he would prefer.
The Stokes side proposed an alternative route which the Kavanagh side says would be more expensive to hard-core.
Following further argument and reply by Paul Fogarty BL, for Kavanagh/Beakonford, and Micheál O’Connell SC, for Mrs Stokes, the judge said he would give a written judgment on the injunction application next Tuesday.
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