Council disputes basis for claims by Jackson Way

There is no basis for the assumptions made by the controversial English shelf company Jackson Way in its multi-million claim for compensation, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has told an arbitration hearing.

In his closing submission, Mr Dermot Flanagan SC, for the county council, took issue with many of the claims made by witnesses for Jackson Way. The company, which is being investigated by the Flood tribunal and the Criminal Assets Bureau, is seeking €47 million in compensation in respect of lands that were compulsorily acquired for the building of the South-Eastern motorway.

Mr Flanagan said there was no certainty about Jackson Way's claim that the motorway would make it very difficult to develop its lands to the south of the road. He also queried Jackson Way's status as an active company.

There was no reasonable evidence to suggest the proposed South-Eastern motorway would have any impact on the development potential of the Jackson Way lands, he said. There was already sufficient zoned residential land in the area and no necessity for the council to rezone any further land.

"The problem isn't the amount of residential land, but the difficulty in getting houses built." Mr Flanagan said Jackson Way was not a trading company, but merely a shelf company formed to hold the Carrickmines lands.

Earlier, Mr Eamonn Sweetman, a chartered engineer with Burroughs Consulting Engineers, said the motorway would generate noise that would affect nearby development. Houses would have to be set back from the motorway and expense would be incurred in building a barrier.

He said guidelines stipulated that noise levels should not exceed 68 decibels at a distance of one metre from houses, but this threshold could be reached even with the erection of noise barriers and a setback of 30 metres.

Noise barriers were expensive, and required special design and materials. It wasn't acceptable to deal with the noise problem by fitting double- or triple-glazing in the windows of nearby houses.

"If you open a window by a motorway, you wouldn't be able to operate in a normal way; you couldn't sleep or work."

Mr Flanagan pointed out that there were houses on the Dublin quays, and houses had been built within a distance of five metres on another section of the M50.

Mr Sweetman said the latter case was unusual because the motorway was built on an embankment above the housing.

He agreed with Mr Flanagan that he was not an expert on noise.

The hearing, which is being conducted by the arbitrator, Mr John Shackleton, is due to conclude today or early next week.

The Flood tribunal is to begin full hearings into allegations that money was paid to councillors in connection with rezoning of land at Carrickmines on November 20th, it has been announced. The hearings are expected to last at least two months.