Pat Kenny 'delighted' planning refused for 'a huge block of concrete surrounded by 11 gardens'

Gordon Deegan

Broadcaster Pat Kenny said today that he is “delighted” that planning permission has been refused to what he described as “a huge block of concrete surrounded by 11 gardens” close to the Kenny home in Dalkey.

Mr Kenny was reacting to the planning refusal issued by An Coimisiún Pleanála for a planned five-storey 104-unit nursing home by Richard Barrett’s Bartra on lands adjacent to the Kenny home in Dalkey in south Dublin.

In an interview, Mr Kenny said following receipt of the ACP refusal to the proposal in the post: “I was delighted that the new Coimiúsin Pleanála has seen the light of day.”

He said: “The folly of the application from the beginning should have been apparent to everyone.”

Mr Kenny said: “Everyone in the area looked at the proposal as if it were lunacy.”

Mr Kenny said that the site at Yonder, Ulverton Rd and Harbour Rd, Dalkey, for the proposed nursing hom,e “is an old quarry and what they were proposing was putting in a huge lump of construction beside people’s back gardens”.

ACP refused planning permission on the single ground that the main access road for the nursing home “would have insufficient capacity to safely accommodate the intensified level of vehicular movements generated by the proposed development”.

Mr Kenny said: “Our concern and every objector’s and observer’s concern was about safety and the constraints of the lane.”

Mr Kenny praised the 75-page report of ACP inspector, Suzanne Kehely into the proposal as “a very impressive piece of work”.

The veteran Newstalk broadcaster said that the inspector “saw what we have been saying from the very, very beginning that this lane was impossible to serve the nursing home”.

Mr Kenny said that he has read Ms Kehely’s report in detail, and he said: “It looks like this new Board has a new approach to things because this is the most comprehensive examination of the whole scheme.”

Mr Kenny said that after the inspector clearly took the time to investigate all the aspects through a detailed analysis, “we got the decision that should have been there from the very beginning".

Mr Kenny and his wife Kathy, have been opposing Bartra plans for the site since 2018. Bartra secured planning permission for an 18-apartment and six-house scheme for the site in 2019, and that permission has since lapsed.

Bartra first proposed the nursing home scheme in 2021, and the planning fight by the Kennys and their neighbours has involved going to the High Court to quash an An Bord Pleanála grant of permission issued in July 2023 to have the case remitted back to ACP for a fresh adjudication.

Mr Kenny said: “If we had a rules-based system where people were aware of the rules, this saga would never have happened.

He said: “If everyone knew what they could build permitted under the rule,s then the objectors could see what is allowed and what isn’t - everyone wants wriggle room and that includes politicians and county councils.”

Mr Kenny said that he is open to the construction of a “tasteful” residential scheme for the Yonder site.

He said: “If the scale of the proposal is modest and sequenced, it can be built. We have always said we would love some sort of scheme to be built on the lands that would be sympathetic to the area."

He said: “It is crying out for a more appropriate housing development instead of building huge blocks.”

The fate of a local badger sett formed part of the opposition by the Kennys to the scheme and Mr Kenny said today that the badgers are "happily alive".

Mr Kenny said that he laments the time devoted to opposing the different planning applications over the past eight years for the Yonder site but added “there is a very positive outcome to this”.

He said: “Over the last eight years, we have got to know people in solidarity with each other and we have become very, very close friends - that is a bonus.”

He said: “We have had our meetings and there is a sociability that comes with that. That is a positive of any otherwise very trying experience."

He said that the planning saga has been ‘stressful’ periodically

Asked if he and his neighbours are planning to celebrate the ACP decision, Mr Kenny said: “There will be a moment.”