Alannah Smyth secures planning permission for Dalkey house despite local opposition

Dublin lawyer Alannah Smyth has succeeded where her father, Noel Smyth, failed, by securing planning permission for a house on Torca Road in Dalkey in the face of local opposition.

Ms Smyth, who has a senior role as corporate counsel with her father’s Fitzwilliam Real Estate property business, has received the green light for a contemporary two-storey, flat-roofed home in Dalkey.

An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission to Ms Smyth for her 373sq m (4,014sq ft) four-bedroomed home with two “amenity terraces” despite the strong recommendation by the appeals board inspector in the case, Suzanne Kehely, to refuse planning permission.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had already issued a comprehensive refusal to Ms Smyth in November 2020 after 60 submissions were lodged by locals, with most objecting to the home.

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In response to the refusal, Ms Smyth employed planning consultants Tom Phillips & Associates to appeal the decision.

Now, 21 months on, the appeals board has granted planning permission to Ms Smyth after concluding that the home would not seriously injure the Vico Road architectural conservation area, the residential amenities of property in the vicinity, or the general amenities of the wider area, and would not interfere with a protected view.

The board said that it decided not to accept Ms Kehely’s refusal recommendation on the grounds that, subject to conditions attached, the house “would be acceptable in terms of pedestrian, cyclist and vehicular traffic safety and convenience, would not detract from the character and amenity of the public right of way or the [Vico Road] architectural conservation area”.

Ms Smyth’s father, developer Noel Smyth, failed 13 years ago to secure planning permission for a larger home of 440sq m (4,736sq ft) for the same location; that application also met strong local opposition.

Mr Smyth appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála but subsequently withdrew his appeal in 2009.

In her grounds to recommend a refusal of planning permission, Ms Kehely found that the house, due to its siting, scale, height and visibility along a designated right of way, together with the associated vehicular entrance and boundary works, would be incongruous with the built heritage and sylvan character of the Vico Road architectural conservation area and would adversely affect its character.

In Ms Smyth’s appeal, planning consultant Tom Phillips told the appeals board that the dwelling has been subject to a comprehensive design process, and careful regard had been taken of the previous reasons for refusal to the 2009 application.