Planning board gets 127 appeals on Ballsbridge tower

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An Bord Pleanála is to hold a preliminary meeting next Wednesday to deal with the 127 appeals it received on developer Seán Dunne’s plans for the Jurys/Berkeley Court hotel sites in Ballsbridge, Dublin. Most unusually, 87 of the 127 appeals are in support of the high-rise scheme, including one lodged on Mr Dunne’s behalf seeking to reinstate elements that were omitted by Dublin City Council’s planners – such as a proposed 37-storey tower. The number of appeals is unprecedented for a planning case and processing them is known to have strained the board’s resources. It now wants to establish how many of the appellants will attend a full oral hearing. A spokeswoman for An Bord Pleanála said it had never before held a preliminary meeting to deal with a planning appeal. But the number of appellants in the Jurys/Berkeley Court case meant that there would be a “logistical problem” if they all turned up. However, she emphasised that appellants who did not attend the preliminary meeting would still he heard if they turned up for the subsequent oral hearing, for which a date has yet to be set; it is expected to last for at least a week.

The Irish Times