The Save Bewley's Cafés Campaign is appealing a decision by Dublin City Council to grant planning permission to Bewley's to redevelop its historic Westmoreland Street premises.
The campaign, which is chaired by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Michael Conaghan, has written to An Bord Pleanála, arguing that the refurbishment of the building's upper levels contravenes the Dublin City Development Plan.
The group is to lodge a separate appeal against related plans by Bewley's to redevelop the ground floor area, where it operated a café for more than a century until its sudden closure last November.
The heritage group An Taisce is also expected to lodge an appeal before next Monday's Bord Pleanála deadline on the grounds that the development undermines Temple Bar's status as a mixed-use area.
In the first of its two appeals, the Save Bewley's Cafés Campaign expressed particular concern about the impact of the development on "the historic and internationally renowned Fleet Room", the café's main seating area.
The group noted that encroachment on this area "took place in the months prior to closure when the current owners altered the use of the Fleet Room to provide for hotel residential dining facilities and disallowed many dismayed customers access to this part of the café".
It continued that the proposed future use of the premises as an expanded Bewley's hotel would undermine the objectives of the Dublin City Development Plan, which warned against "large or concentrated public house/ restaurant/nightclub uses" in Temple Bar.
The plan also stated: "There will be a presumption against the granting of planning permission for additional uses of this nature and extension of existing premises for such uses."
A spokeswoman for Bewley's said yesterday it would not be appealing either planning decisions granted by Dublin City Council last month. However, she said, the company did feel aggrieved at certain conditions attached to the decisions, particularly the local authority's refusal to allow Bewley's establish an outdoor seating area on Fleet Street.
She added that Bewley's intended to retain a "café of sorts" at Westmoreland Street.
