PLANS FOR FOUR four-storey apartment blocks in Castleknock that were objected to by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and former Tánaiste Joan Burton have been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála.
The proposed development at Brady’s Public House on the Old Navan Road in Dublin would see the pub demolished and replaced with 41 residential housing units.
Fingal County Council approved the plans in January of this year but a number of appeals were launched by locals and politicians, among them Varadkar and Burton.
Varadkar’s objection was co-signed by Fine Gael councillor Eithne Loftus and included complaints about the type of development planned and the possibility that it would cast shadows over nearby houses.
“To begin, four-story apartment blocks are a design model which has long fallen into disfavor,” Varadkar wrote.
Yet these type of apartments are a key feature of the Absainte Ltd scheme. It would be grossly insensitive to local feelings to permit such dated architecture to succeed.
It continues:
Another flawed feature, one deeply worrying to the community, are a host of issues surfacing from the ‘shadow analysis’. No neighbours should be subjected to serious overshadowing.
At last month’s National Ploughing Championship, Varadkar defended his intervention by saying that his constituency is one which is “blighted by bad planning”.
“It’s always the prerogative of a councillor or a TD to object developments that they may see as inappropriate,” he said according to the Irish Independent.
Burton’s objection was made on similar grounds and was co-signed by local Labour member John Walsh.
“The four storey development is visually obtrusive and would dominate the existing estantes, “ Burton wrote in her objection to An Bord Pleanála.
The visual impact would affect not only estates immediately adjacent to the site (Talbot Downs, Talbot Court and the Old Navan Road) but also the neighbouring Woodpark Estate. The proposed development severely detracts from the visual amenity of the surrounding area.
Burton’s objection also stated that the plans contained inadequate parking provisions and that it would lead to “a significant increase in traffic”.
Despite the objections, An Bord Pleanála last week approved plans for the development under a host of conditions.
Among the conditions are that some design elements of the development be amended.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say