Chink of light in the fine print

Aficionados of planning in Dublin who have been poring over the mammoth report by chief planning officer Pat McDonnell on the (formerly mammoth) high-rise scheme for Spencer Dock will no doubt have come across Appendix 6 (iii). Unusually, it consists of the minutes of a meeting on July 23rd, 1999, two weeks before the planning decision was issued, between Mr McDonnell and three of his colleagues, including the Corporation's Law Agent, with four advisers representing Dermot Desmond.

Mr Desmond was among those who lodged an objection to the Spencer Dock scheme, with his planning consultants, Reid Associates, arguing that it was "driven purely by economic considerations of maximising commercial floor space" on a pivotal site in the Docklands area. The submission maintained that there was no justification for the "excessively high" buildings proposed, saying these would "significantly obtrude on the skyline (and) detract from the importance of the Liffey as a major linear landmark of the city".

At the July 23rd meeting, Mr Desmond's counsel, Michael McDonnell BL, argued that the planning application was invalid because the drawings submitted by Kevin Roche's office in New Haven, Connecticut, were not at the prescribed scale of 1:100. Ann Mulchrone, of Reid Associates, also argued that the plans were "flawed" and "not up to scratch", while Colm McCarthy, of DKM, said he could see no reason why the Exchequer, with its surplus of £5 billion, shouldn't fund the National Conference Centre.

The 163-page document also includes a report by Michael Lowe, of Arup Associates, who was called in by the Dublin Corporation to assist in assessing the Spencer Dock project. He brought them all to London to have a look at Broadgate, Canary Wharf and the Barbican. Mr Lowe's report, which offers a chink of light to Richard Barrett, Johnny Ronan and Harry Crosbie that they might get away with a few high buildings at Spencer Dock, was endorsed by city architect Jim Barrett - but not, at least in this respect, by Pat McDonnell.