Locals came out on Saturday to protest against a proposed development in St Anne’s Park.
St Anne’s Park protest
Crekav Trading is seeking permission to build 104 three-storey houses and 432 apartments in blocks of five and eight storeys on lands surrounding St Paul’s College on Sybil Hill Road.
There are currently sports pitches on the land that are used by approximately 700 children from sports clubs from the Clontarf and Raheny areas.
St Anne’s Park protest
The application includes a proposal to replace the playing pitches with a gym and two all-weather pitches but locals say that this is not enough to cater to demand in the area.
The protestors marched through the park wearing t-shirts saying “Hands off our Park” while others carried placards bearing slogans such as “The Paved Paradise and Put Up An Apartment Block” and “Crek-Off Out of Our Park”.
St Anne’s Park protest
Senator Aodhan O’Riordan (Lab), who helped to organise the protest, said:
“This park, means the world to local people and every city councillor and local representative is against this proposal.”
St Anne’s Park protest
A number of other concerns have been raised by local representatives. All six councillors from the Clontarf Ward of Dublin City Council last week made a joint submission to the council asking that the request for planning permission be rejected.
St Anne’s Park protest
The letter, signed by Cllr Naoise O’Muiri (FG), Cllr Deirdre Heney (FF), Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones (Lab), Sean Paul Mahon (FF), Cllr Damian O’Farrell (Ind) and Cllr Ciaran O’Moore (SF) cites issues including flooding, traffic congestion and a loss of visual amenity.
St Anne’s Park protest
The letter also highlights the fact that the land is a feeding area for curlew and Brent Geese.
It says: “These lands are located within the Dublin Bay SPA and are part of the Dublin Bay Biosphere Catchment.
“They are feeding grounds for Brent Geese and for the Curlew.
“Dublin City Council’s Parks Division when assessing the impact of a related application (DCC Reg. Ref. 3777/17) raised serious concerns about the impact of the proposal on feeding grounds, concluding that ‘In this regard, the proposed mitigation (i.e. the capacity of the network of alternative feeding sites to absorb the loss of St Paul’s) is not considered sufficient, practicable or achievable’.
St Anne’s Park protest
“This neighbouring application is of a much greater scale so those concerns are even more relevant here.”
The deadline for submission of objections to the development to An Bord Pleanala is 5pm on Monday, February 5.
St Anne’s Park protest
