AN APPLICATION TO install a large full motion advertising screen at the entrance of St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre has been rejected by Dublin City Council on the basis that it would “seriously injure the visual amenity of the area”.
The application from Nightlight Screens Ltd. and supported by the shopping centre’s current owners Davy, is the second such application for an advertising installation in the past 12 months.
The latest application sought to install “full motion/dynamic content with regard to transitions, with new signage which displays a loop of static content separated by smooth transitions”.
It also argued that the signage was not dissimilar to standalone digital advertising panels located along streets in the surrounding area.
However, in its decision to refuse permission, the planning authority said “by reason of its scale and location at a significant junction of Grafton Street and St Stephen’s Green [it] would seriously detract from the urban design area”.
It also ruled that it would “injure the visual amenity of the area”.
Large advertising screens have become staple attractions in many large cities across the world, including London’s Piccadilly Circus, Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square, and most famously, Times Square in New York.
Grafton Street and surrounding streets in the city centre, however, were designated an architectural conservation area by Dublin City Council in 2006 in a bid to “protect and enhance its unique character”.
The Nightlight Screens Ltd application, which was submitted in March, sought permission for a 14.7 square metre display screen. It followed an earlier application by the centre’s previous owners, Irish Life Assurance PLC and Ventasker Ltd, to retain an existing 17.16 square metre screen when its licence expired in 2019.
Dublin City Council and An Bord Pleanála last year refused permission to extend that licence claiming it would have an “unacceptable negative impact” on the area.
A number of Dublin City Councillors have expressed concern at local authority’s decision to refuse planning permission for an advertising screen like this.
Fine Gael’s Danny Byrne told TheJournal.ie: ”We need to be doing everything humanly possible to help businesses. I think a lot of businesses are on their knees and while I do respect the integrity of historical buildings and so on, we have to live in the today.”
Independent councillor Mannix Flynn suggested it is “peculiar” that the permission was not granted for this type of signage when the controversial Dublin Town Christmas lights hung over Grafton street got the go ahead last year.
“Not one person objected to this screen and it’s a rather peculiar set of contradictions by Dublin City Council. When you weigh up that they rebranded the whole area as the Grafton Quarter and then talk about architectural conservation, you’re left scratching your head.”
Frederick Street
In March 2019, Nightlight Screens Ltd. also submitted an application to erect LED signage on the corner of Frederick Street and Dorset Street in the North Inner City area but it was also rejected.
The proposal for a wraparound digital screen to replace the existing Guinness advertising characters designed by John Gilroy, which currently feature on the facade of the building, was rejected on similar grounds to that of the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre application.
The application proposed to “upgrade” the site to “a digital celebration of Gilroy’s work” and to partner with Guinness and parent company Diageo.
In its refusal, the local authority said it would be appear “visually incongruous to the streetscape” and “if permitted would set an undesirable precedent contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of this location”.
It also said it “would serve as a distraction to road users and would result in a traffic hazard”.
TheJournal.ie contacted Nightlight Screens Ltd and St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre but no-one was available for comment.
Applicants have a four week window to appeal planning application decisions.
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