Brave new plan fails to ease worries of residents

Reaction: Talk of a bold, modern design cut no ice with Pauline Pomeroy yesterday as she surveyed an image of the proposed new Lansdowne Road stadium.

"It looks like that spaceship from Alien landed in the middle of all these little dinky houses," she said. "It'll be like having Liberty Hall in our back garden."

A resident of O'Connell Gardens for the past 30 years, she said she had hoped for a more modest development that, if anything, shifted the grandstands currently overlooking her home away from residential areas.

Instead, the proposed development would reduce the distance between her back garden wall and a greatly enlarged east stand to "just 15 feet", she said.

"My quality of life is gone when that stadium goes up. Everyone is so upset. When we turned up and saw those drawing it knocked the guts out of us."

One of a number of residents' association representatives invited to survey the plans early yesterday, before their official publication, Ms Pomeroy said: "We're not anti-sport but you have to put people before the love of sport. Why do they insist on developing a national stadium in a residential area?"

Among other locals, reactions were a little less severe. Some residents welcomed the "wave" design, allowing for a lower stand at the north of the ground. However, they accused the developers of being "vague" about the impact of overshadowing - an issue due to be addressed in a study at planning stage.

"It's better to have the stadium rebuilt than have a load of houses or apartments on the plot," said Catherine Forde, a mother of two, living on terraced Havelock Square. "But I would be worried about the impact of the building on the kids. There is a fear about asbestos in the old stands, and there will be a lot of dust and rubble."

In addition, she said, "we know in order to make that stadium pay they will have to put on more matches."

Locals said they were already frustrated with the stadium owners about traffic and crowd management on match days.

Havelock Square Residents' Association chairman John Cogan said: "The IRFU are not the most interested in relating to the community. There is no real empathy with our concerns."

Appeals for access to the estate to be limited on match days have fallen on deaf ears. So too calls for the redevelopment to incorporate lands currently used by the IRFU for a training pitch.

Of the latter issue, Mr Cogan said: "It's something we hoped would be given consideration. But it was not even up for discussion."

The training pitch, located to the east of the stadium, is leased by the IRFU to the Lansdowne and Wanderers rugby clubs until 2017, and many residents suspect the rugby union will develop it for other purposes after that date.

However, a spokesman for the IRFU said "that is a red herring which coincided with the hype around the sale of the Jurys Hotel Group lands. There is no intention to sell that land. It is being preserved for Lansdowne, Wanderers and the Irish team for training purposes."

The spokesman added the IRFU had consulted widely on the redevelopment, adding "I don't think anything has happened without recourse to the residents."

Nonetheless, suspicions abound, and among many residents, there is a feeling of being powerless in the face of change.

Vera Anderson, whose garden backs on to the north terrace, was worried about the IRFU's recent buying up of a number of neighbouring properties. "You wouldn't know what they're going to do. We have yet to see the details."

"I like living here but I just wonder will I be able to stay," said Ms Anderson.