Pat Kenny loses battle against five-storey nursing home plan

Broadcaster Pat Kenny and his Dalkey neighbours have lost out in a long-running planning battle to prevent a five-storey nursing home being built close to their homes.

An Bord Pleanála has given the Richard Barrett-led Bartra Property Ltd the green light for the 104-bed nursing home at Yonder, Ulverton Road and Harbour Road, Dalkey, on lands that border the broadcaster’s family home.

The appeals board overturned a refusal of permission for the scheme more than two years ago by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

A central part of the Kennys’ opposition against the planned nursing home was the impact it would have on local badgers.

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Mr Kenny said today: “Kathy and I are flabbergasted by the decision which is bizarre on so many fronts.” He noted it had been comprehensively rejected by the council.

“An Bord Pleanála’s decision is wrong on so many levels and we can only conclude that the board is so overworked that they can’t look properly at plans and analyse them because this makes no sense whatsoever,” Mr Kenny said.

[ Pat Kenny says political criticism of RTÉ ‘hard to take’ given children’s hospital cost overruns ]

[ Pat Kenny calls on council to refuse permission for Bulloch Harbour plan ]

He said the board did not appear to understand the observations made by local people.

“I would have thought the board would have learned from the Paul Hyde scandal and they should take due care and consideration of all observations and of Government guidelines.”

The Newstalk broadcaster described the appeals board ruling as “crazy, absolutely crazy – the board will be judged ultimately by what happens”, but he would not be drawn on the prospect of a High Court challenge against the decision.

“I don’t believe that the board has a mandate to ride roughshod over local people,” he said. “All we wanted the board and the council to do was to follow the rules and those rules involve protecting the badger.”

Mr Kenny said that, because of so much other construction work in the area, “this is the badgers’ Alamo – they have nowhere else to go. The board with this decision has effectively killed the badgers.”

[ Pat Kenny’s media company made almost €250,000 last year ]

[ An Bord Pleanála introduces new code of conduct to tighten internal rules ]

Kathy Kenny, Mr Kenny’s wife, described the approval as a “nonsensical permission”.

As part of the permission, the appeals board has included a condition that, during construction, no blasting or pile-driving is to take place within 150m of an active badger sett during the breeding season from December to June or construction work within 50m in the same period. The board said the condition was included “in the interest of wildlife protection”.

An Bord Pleanála said the proposed development would not endanger pedestrian or traffic safety, would not seriously injure the residential amenity of property in the area by overshadowing or overlooking, or the visual amenity of the wider area. It also concluded that the scheme would not give rise to unacceptable ecological impacts.