The property developer Mr Bernard McNamara yesterday removed a helicopter pad from a site at the edge of Booterstown Marsh in Dublin, following complaints that it had been installed without planning permission. Frank McDonald, Environment Editor and Fiona Gartland report.
An Taisce warned that helicopters could frighten wild birds in the designated nature reserve.
"They will fly away and not come back", according to Ms Veronica Heywood, chairwoman of Booterstown Nature Reserve Management Advisory Committee.
Mr Niall Hatch, of Birdwatch Ireland, said the marsh was one of the last remaining winter roosting sites in the Dublin Bay area for waders such as Dunlin, Snipe Red Shank and Black-tailed Godwit as well as waterfowl such as Teal and Mallard. Mr McNamara told The Irish Times that he was having the helipad removed.
"For the sake of a quiet life, it's being dug up today", he said. "There's no point in trying to prove you're right if there's a chorus of people saying you're wrong".
The developer, who acquired the site last year, said he had expert reports showing that planning permission was not required.
He was also prepared to meet An Taisce, which holds a long lease on the bird sanctuary.
Mr McNamara said he would now leave the site "sterile" rather than proceed with plans to dump top-soil on it from another site he is developing at Merrion Gates.
The top-soil would have been used for mounding to "tidy the site up".
He explained that some mounding was also necessary to prevent trespass on the site, as it was costing him €2,000 per week to provide security there.
He also said there had only been three helicopter landings since the helipad was installed.
The Booterstown site straddles the administrative boundary of Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. In November 2003 An Bord Pleanála overturned planning permission for 53 apartments in four blocks.
Upholding an appeal by a group of local residents, the board said the scheme by Ashcastle Developments Ltd would contravene the open space and recreational zoning of the site, "contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area".
The second reason given by the board was that the proposed development would be premature pending the determination of a route for the proposed Eastern Bypass motorway, which would run through the Booterstown area.
Ms Fiona O'Malley, the Progressive Democrats TD for Dún Laoghaire, said she had made it clear to the county council that she took a very dim view of this "cavalier attitude" to the planning regulations and had been assured that action was being taken.
A former lord mayor, Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour) expressed his concern and told the Southside People he had asked the city manager to investigate.