Environmentalists will be interested in an application by Ashcastle Developments to build apartments beside the Booterstown Marsh in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The Marsh, of course, is a sanctuary for all sorts of protected birds.

Ashcastle wants to build 88 apartments in one four-storey, and two three-storey buildings, on a site bordered by the DART line between the Swiftcall Building and the Marsh, on the sea side of Rock Road, opposite the Tara Towers hotel. The site straddles the boundary between Dublin Corporation and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, and both local authorities will have to make what is likely to be a sensitive decision.