GAA club caught offside on pylon

One of Dublin's best-known GAA clubs has been ordered to take down a floodlighting pylon it put up without planning permission.

St Vincent's club in Marino has been given a month to comply with the request from Dublin City Council after a warning letter was sent to it yesterday.

The pylon was put up last month to accommodate a phone mast along with a 3m control box.

Local residents objected because of fear of radiation from the mast which is less than 25m from the nearest home on Griffith Avenue.

One of the residents, Conor Horgan, said: "We were up in arms because not only did they not have planning permission, but they had poles a couple of hundred metres away from any house that they could have used to put a phone mast on."

Last year St Monica's in Edenmore, a nearby GAA club, was allowed to put up mobile phone masts without planning permission on floodlighting pylons after applying for an exemption order.

Local TD Richard Bruton (FG) said: "They [St Vincent's] really jumped the gun on it. Essentially, they had a planning exemption based on erecting a mast on an existing structure, but once they decided to build a new structure which was much bulkier than what went before they sacrificed their planning exemption.

"They were always walking on thin ice when they tried to do something that they didn't have permission for."

A city council spokeswoman said a statutory enforcement notice would be served if the club did not respond within the month to the warning letter.

The club will now have to prove that the pylon is not an unauthorised development, apply for planning retention or take it down.

A spokeswoman for St Vincent's said the club was "surprised" by Dublin City Council's actions.

"We wouldn't have gone through with this if we didn't think that everything would be okay.

"As far as we were aware all legalities were complied with. We will have to study this letter."