Institute appeals pedestrian and cycle route

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology has told An Bord Pleanála it was never consulted by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council over a pedestrian and cycle route through its private grounds from a proposed residential development at nearby Kensington Lodge.

As a condition of planning permission of the residential scheme at Kensington Lodge off Rochestown Avenue, the council told developers Patrick Maguire and Martin Monaghan that provision should be made for pedestrian and cycle access through the site to the institute.

In an appeal to An Bord Pleanála, the institute, which adjoins Kensington Lodge on part of its boundary, said the cycle and pedestrian route would "adversely affect our enjoyment of the land and would have serious legal, insurance and financial implications with respect to access and right of way imposed by the planning authority.

"At no time during the planning application period did the planning authority or applicant seek to engage in consultation with the institute.

The developer is looking to refurbish Kensington Lodge, and change the use of a mews building from two studio units to one two-bedroom unit. A new two-storey mews building would contain two two-bedroom units and 100 apartments would be built in three blocks, as well as a new entrance and access road off Rochestown Avenue.

Sefton Green Residents Group also appealed the development saying the design of the development is "poorly formulated" and would affect the setting of the Kensington Lodge, a protected structure.

It said one of the blocks "with its ponderous massing would erode an appreciation" of the protected structure from the public road.

It said the proposed two-storey flat roofed mews would appear as a significant physical intrusion and its proximity to the south-west end of Block B to Kensington Lodge would "present an an overbearing structure".