Residents group seeking judicial review of decision to grant planning permission

A residents group wants the High Court to overturn An Bord Pleanála’s fresh grant of permission for a controversial development on lands near St Anne’s Park.

Clontarf Residents Association announced today that they are seeking a judicial review of the Board’s decision to grant planning permission for 657 apartments on school playing pitches off the main avenue of St. Anne’s Park, to the rear of St. Paul’s College in Raheny.

The school pitches were acquired from the Vincentian Fathers, Trustees of St. Paul’s College, in 2015, by Crekav Trading GP Ltd.

An Bord Pleanala granted permission for the development in 2018 but that decision was challenged, in three separate sets of proceedings by Clonres CLG; environmentalist Peter Sweetman; and Louth Environmental Group.

The Board ultimately refused permission for the application and Crekav subsequently took a judicial review of that decision.

While a ruling was issued in August the Orders have not yet been finalised.

Following the submission of an amended, significantly larger application by Crekav in 2019, the Board once again granted permission.

That grant was challenged in the High Court and, last June, the Board consented to an order quashing that permission on the basis that they had not adequately addressed requirements of the Habitats Directive in relation to an appropriate assessment of the impact of the development on feeding grounds of the light-bellied brent goose and other protected bird species in Dublin Bay.

The matter was sent back to the Board to be determined “in accordance with law” from the time the Board received a report in December 2019 from the chief executive of Dublin City Council, recommending permission be refused.

Last August, the Board again granted permission, subject to 30 conditions, and that decision is the subject to the latest challenge by Clontarf Residents Association.

A spokesperson for Clontarf Residents Association said:

“If the current climate crisis and the Covid pandemic have taught us anything, it must surely be the value of protecting our green spaces, both for the mental and physical health of our citizens and for the preservation of wildlife.”