Wicklow County Council and anti-roads protesters camped at the Glen of the Downs in Co Wicklow have been given a date by the Supreme Court for the hearing of an appeal by the protesters against a controversial road-widening scheme in the glen.
The protesters previously lost a High Court challenge to the road-idening scheme and yesterday they lost an application for a Supreme Court injunction preventing the council from going ahead with the felling of trees in the glen, pending the full hearing of their appeal.
The county council is now not bound by its earlier undertakings given to the High Court to refrain from felling some 1,700 trees.
However, after yesterday's case the chairman of Wicklow County Council, Mr George Jones (Fine Gael), told The Irish Times that the authority would voluntarily refrain from felling.
"We have a date now, October 14th, for the full hearing of the protesters' case and the council wouldn't be interested in moving ahead now that that date has been set.
"We are confident that we will get the go-ahead for the scheme and the Supreme Court is the final avenue of appeal," Mr Jones said.
It is understood that an earlier plan to remove trees in the early hours of the morning last weekend was abandoned after news of it was published in this newspaper.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/8a09a42a-bf7b-491e-848d-432f8309b3fa.png)