A blunder by Dublin City Council officials has led to the collapse of plans for the rejuvenation of Mountjoy Square proposed more than a decade ago.
The council’s executive has accepted it gave incorrect advice to councillors last month, which put them under pressure to vote on the plan for the Georgian park’s redevelopment, weeks ahead of the actual deadline for its ratification.
The council has now decided to scrap the planning process that had been in train since the start of the year. It will initiate new statutory planning procedures, which might not be completed until next year, potentially putting millions of euro in Government funding at risk.
Plans to restore the late 18th century park in Dublin’s north inner city were published by the council in 2014. They were revised in 2018, but the work never went ahead. In January the council began public consultation on new plans for the square.
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The €7.5 million project involved the restoration of the original circular lawn and footpath network, the removal of 2,700sq m tarmac and concrete surfaces, the demolition of some 20th century structures, and the development of new play areas.
Almost half of the money was to have been provided through the Government’s urban regeneration and development fund.
The council’s head of parks Les Moore told councillors on June 8th that unless they voted on the plans at that meeting, the statutory time limit for the planning process would be exceeded and the application would “fail”.
He also told councillors the funding was timebound and there was a “great chance” it would be lost if the project was not approved at the meeting.
Councillors voted by 44 to 17 in favour of the plans. However, following subsequent queries, chief executive Richard Shakespeare last week wrote to councillors saying the information about the planning time limit had been “unfortunately incorrect”.
While this had been a “bona fide mistake” he was proposing to run the vote again at the next full council meeting on Monday.
However, concerns emerged about a potential legal challenge, and in recent days the council has decided to start the planning process again.
Independent councillor Mannix Flynn said he would have initiated legal action had the process not been stopped.
“This was a grievous error,” he said. “There was an attempt to railroad this through by the executive, and what they were doing was reckless, putting the council at massive legal risk, as well as undermining the trust of the councillors and the local community in the planning process, and putting funding at risk.
“As councillors, our obligation is to ensure proper governance, and to do that we rely on the executive to give the correct information. They made an absolute hames of this.”
Green Party councillor Janet Horner said the project was now facing a new 20-week planning process, which, while it could be initiated this month, might not start until September.
“It is highly regrettable and deeply frustrating that we are in this position,” she said.
In order to meet the terms of the Government’s grant, the work on the park must be completed in 2028. “This is a tight timeline, but I have been assured by the executive that it can be met,” Horner said. “Ultimately I do want to see this regeneration project go ahead.”
Graham Hickey, chief executive of the Dublin Civic Trust, which has for years sought the restoration of the park, said it was “extremely disappointing” the plans had collapsed.
“Given the years of work that has gone into developing a world class park here, that it would fail on a technicality is awful,” he said. “It’s just such a mess.”
