The Green Party is to ask the Government to provide funding of over €3 million for one of the last urban farms in Dublin to prevent part of it being sold to developers.
The farm, Airfield House in Dundrum, was left by the Overend sisters for the benefit of Dubliners when they died over 10 years ago.
Airfield Trust, which runs the house, is now planning to sell 3½ acres of the land, known as Dudley's field, to finance the preservation and operation of the 35-acre property. Much of the land is zoned for residential development, although the trustees have stressed they do not plan any more sell-offs.
According to local Green TD Mr Eamon Ryan, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has received 700 letters from locals asking for the residential zoning to be removed from all of the farm land. The submissions were made as part of the ongoing public consultation on the local authority's draft development plan.
Last year, the Airfield trustees successfully lobbied to retain the residential rezoning for much of the property. Planners had proposed this be zoned as open space in the current development plan, but county councillors overturned this last month.
Mr Ryan believes that an alternative to the sell-off could be found. "The sale of the three and a half acres is to fund the rest of the development, but we are trying to get the trustees to look at other options."
The party is writing to a number of Government Departments to seek funding for the restoration of the grounds.
Airfield Trust was set up in 1993 following the death of Ms Naomi Overend in 1993. Along with her sister Letitia, who died in 1977, the two sisters lived in the house from their birth. They dressed in near-Edwardian costume, and travelled around south Dublin in a 1927 Rolls Royce.