Appeal over scheme for Sinéad O’Connor’s former Bray house lodged with Bord Pleanála

The applicant behind plans to convert the former €1 million Bray seafront home of singer Sinéad O’Connor into apartments is contesting a council decision to refuse planning permission for the scheme.

Rachel Carthy lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála against Wicklow County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to convert Montebello on Bray’s promenade into five apartments.

In refusing planning permission, the council ruled that the scheme would be out of character with the streetscape and would intrude on views of the protected structures in the vicinity of the site.

The council also ruled that the scheme’s proposed roof projecting structure would seriously injure the amenities of the area and would adversely impact on the architectural character of the seafront area.

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The singer sold the six-bed house in 2021 for €1.04 million.

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On behalf of Ms Carthy, planning consultant Colin McGill told the appeals board that the council refusal was “not justified”.

In his appeal, Mr McGill said that the proposed roof profile in the scheme would “not detract from the character of the seafront”.

“It will not impact on protected structures nor protected views. Relative to the scale of buildings beside the subject site, the proposed development will not have a material impact on the character of the seafront,” Mr McGill said.

Mr McGill further contended that the proposal did “not detract from the character of the area, either locally or in wider context”.

He argued that the proposal is sufficiently distant from protected structures to the north at over 50m and is of greater distance to structures to the south.

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“It is contended the proposal will not have any impact on the built heritage of the area,” he said.

A number of objections were lodged against the scheme and one lodged on behalf of the next-door neighbours on Strand Road, Ceceline and Frank Power, claimed that the scheme “is an excessive and far too commercial development that fails to have due regard to the protection of the residential amenities of adjoining houses”.

The Power objection – drafted by Peter P Gillett & Associates – said that “the quest to maximise the amount of development on site undermines the existing quality of the living environment that our clients enjoy and that would be reasonable to protect”.