Appeal against €153m Guinness expansion plan

PLANS FOR the €153 million expansion of the Guinness Brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin have been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

Drinks company Diageo was last month granted permission by Dublin City Council for the development to build a new brewhouse within the 55-acre campus that runs from James’s Street to Victoria Quay, close to Heuston train station. The expansion would increase the capacity of the St James’s Gate brewery to more than eight million hectolitres from its current level of five million.

The appeal to the planning board has been made by one of the brewery’s neighbours Noel Leonard, who owns the 19th century pub of the same name at the corner of Watling Street and Victoria Quay.

Mr Leonard, who lives above the pub had previously lodged an objection with the city council in relation to the plans which locate a waste water treatment plant at the back of his property.

In a letter to the council, Mr Leonard’s representatives said the location of the plant, with associated storage tanks up to nine metres in height, was inappropriate in such close proximity to residential property.

Mr Leonard broadly welcomed the development of the brewery because of the jobs and tourism it would bring to the area, but asked that another location on the site be found for the placing of the waste water works.

In the conditions attached to the granting of permission, the council directed that extra screening be provided around the plant and that it would be fully enclosed to minimise noise.

It also ordered that reductions in the roof height of the plant be agreed with the council before construction started.