Dartry's hoi-polloi object to plans for students' pad

Dartry residents are up in the arms over Trinity College's plans to turn Trinity Hall on Dartry Road into a massive student resident complex with an extra 900 beds, dining hall, offices and shop. The denizens of the leafy suburb, including the likes of barristers Adrian Hardiman and Paul O'Higgins, former Dublin lord Mayor Alexis FitzGerald and dentist Tony Canellan have banded together to oppose the scheme which, they say will totally alter the character of the neighbourhood, not to mention play havoc with the water pressure.

Described as "grotesque in the extreme" by one local, the scheme will include three blocks of apartments of up to five storeys high, fronting onto Dartry Road and chi-chi Temple Road. Although Trinity has been granted an extension on its application, given the level of opposition - up to 150 residents are though to have objected - it is unlikely that the Corpo will grant permission. Perhaps the college might consider redeveloping its string of properties on Westland Row and Pearse Street as extra accommodation, an area where, one assumes, students would much rather live.