Rathfarnham scheme appealedA residential development proposed for a disused hockey pitch that was formerly part of Loreto National school, now an Educate Together school, in Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 has met with local opposition. M&N O'Grady Developments is looking to build 80 houses and apartments in six blocks on the site between Stonepark Avenue and Loreto Avenue.

However, Longwood Park/Stonepark Abbey Residents Association has appealed the development to An Bord Pleanála. It says that the developer was granted permission for houses at the adjacent Stonepark Abbey in 1988 and proceeded to develop it "in a piecemeal fashion over the past 18 years" and that the developer has yet to hand over the estate to residents. "This does not bode well for a successful and timely completion on the hockey pitch," says the appeal.

The residents association says JCBs and bulldozers cut across its designated open space to access the hockey pitch in early 2006 and it wants gates removed and a wall sealed up. Part of the proposed development involves demolishing 54 Nutgrove Avenue and the occupants of the house next door have appealed because they say it will cause structural damage to their home which wasn't built to be an end-of-terrace house.

Two appeals to 12-unit scheme

In Dún Laoghaire, there are two appeals to An Bord Pleanála to a proposal by Jerry Ryan for a residential development on the corner of Tivoli Road and York Road. He wants to knock Tivoli Lodge and build a three-storey apartment block of 12 apartments and change the use of York House to allow it to be converted into two apartments.

One appellant, York Road Residents Association, said that York House (built in 1838) is part of the social and cultural heritage of the area and any development should retain the existing layout. It is also concerned that the underground car-park, which will have a ramp accessed via a shuttered garage door directly onto the road, will be a traffic hazard. It says the proposed revised road layout would require any vehicle entering the development to stop on the roadway while the garage doors are opened and block traffic on Tivoli Road within 40 metres of a busy junction. Another concern is that the height and scale of the development will be out of proportion with surrounding buildings and that the apartment block protrudes the building line on York Road by four metres.