O'Brien plan to demolish period home refused

Planning:Businessman Denis O'Brien has been refused planning permission to demolish his €27 million house on Shrewsbury Road in Ballsbridge and replace it with a larger two-storey home with basement and attic.

Mr O'Brien bought the Tudor style house, Belmont, above, two years ago. It's a rambling 650sq m (7,000sq ft) home on two-thirds of an acre of grounds that include a swimming pool complex and putting green.

Though the house has lots of ground floor reception rooms upstairs accommodation is more limited, with a series of low-ceilinged bedrooms leading to a minstrels gallery. Mr O'Brien planned to replace the 1904 house with a new detached house keeping the existing line of the building, but extending the living space into the basement as well as into an annex.