Embassy agreement to permit widening work on Stillorgan road bottleneck

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has just finalised contract documents for a long-delayed scheme to widen the narrowest stretch of the N11 Stillorgan/Bray road, between Foxrock Church and White's Cross. Mr Des Taylor, assistant county manager, said yesterday that tenders for the contract would be sought shortly and it was hoped to start the work as soon as the current Leopardstown Road scheme is completed next April.

This scheme, which is currently under way, involved widening Leopardstown Road between the N11 and Brewery Road. At the junction with the N11, it involves going around the corner and down the Stillorgan/Bray road for a distance of 100 metres.

These works have caused some confusion, with passing motorists assuming that because only about six boundary walls have been set back on the N11 there is still a major problem with widening the rest of it - including the grounds of the Portuguese embassy.

For years, the N11 improvement scheme between Foxrock Church and White's Cross was held up by the embassy. Under diplomatic law, it occupies Portuguese sovereign territory which the council was precluded from acquiring by compulsory purchase.

The embassy, which includes the Portuguese ambassador's residence, stood to lose its tennis court, but rejected offers of alternative accommodation elsewhere in Dublin's diplomatic belt until the matter was finally resolved last year, amid some controversy.

A local Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Larry Butler, erected signs along the narrow stretch of the N11 accusing the embassy of blocking progress. He in turn was accused by the ambassador of staging a publicity stunt.

However, the county council and the embassy reached an amicable settlement under which it will receive an undisclosed sum in compensation in return for ceding some 30 feet of its frontage on the N11 so that this bottleneck on the road can be eliminated.