PLANS TO DEVELOP an urban beach in Dún Laoghaire have been given the go ahead by An Bord Pleanála.
Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company has been given permission to go ahead with plans to develop the beach inside its southside harbour.
The company has projected that the development will attract more than 150,000 visitors a year and generate €1 million through admissions charges.
Application process
After the project was approved by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council in November last year, the decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála in January.
The council has said that the estimated cost of the project would be in the region of €3 million and that the council would be putting up around half of this, at a cost of €1.5 million.
After the decision by the planning board, building on the beach will go ahead with expectations that the area will be open in time for the summer 2016 season.
It will have a season of six months, running in the summer between April and September.
The urban beach
The beach itself has been inspired by the Badeschiff facility in Berlin and will include a range of facilities.
It will come with a wind-shielded café and lounge area, an artificial beach at the East Pier, a floating river barge with heated, treated seawater, as well as toilets and changing rooms.
It will be designed with a environmentally friendly ethos in mind, with a large part of the barge being constructed from recycled material.
Speaking about the structure, local Fianna Fáil councillor, Cormac Devlin, said:
The challenge now must be to ensure the project is both inclusive and sustainable, while also not unduly impacting on the general recreational amenity of the harbour.
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