A legal dispute over an alleged right of way across land on which a developer proposes to build a new golf course for Dún Laoghaire Golf Club came to an abrupt temporary halt in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday.
The case was adjourned for a week when the former owner of the land, Mr John Heatley Leeson, told Judge Alison Lindsay he had at one time constructed a post-and-wire fence across the claimed right of way.
Ms Carol O'Farrell, for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which had earlier been directed by the court to prove the existence of the right of way, said this new evidence had not been put to local authority witnesses who on Wednesday gave evidence of having used the right of way.
Following consultations with Mr Hugh O'Neill SC, for the developers, Ms O'Farrell said a new inspection of the lands would have to take place and the earlier witnesses would have to be recalled and questioned about the purported fence.
Mr O'Neill has told the court that the developers Joseph, Peter and Michael Cosgrave, are seeking a declaration that the alleged public right of way from Ballyman Road to Barnaslingan Lane via Glenmunder and the grounds of Phrompstown House, as included in the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Development Plan, does not exist.
Ms O'Farrell, in points of claim entered by the local authority, has submitted the right of way has, since time immemorial, been used by the public and more recently particularly by hill walkers.