Business

Cadbury site apartments refused over Brent goose concerns

OTR Development Company had applied for 330 apartments and other accommodation at the Coolock chocolate factory’s former pitch-and-putt course

The Cadbury's factory in Coolock, Dublin: its former pitch-and-putt course on the Oscar Traynor Road has been refused planning. Photograph: Alan Betson

Gordon Deegan
Thu Mar 14 2024 - 18:15

Concerns for the light-bellied Brent goose have helped stall large-scale housing plans in Dublin considered “desperately needed amid the current housing crisis”.

Dublin City Council has refused planning permission to OTR Development Company for 330 apartments, 60 assisted-living units and retail space at the site of the former Cadbury’s pitch-and-putt course on the Oscar Traynor Road in north Dublin.

The proposed scheme includes five retail units totalling 3,303sq m, including a neighbourhood store of 2,538sq m.

The Large Scale Residential Development comprises six blocks rising from two to nine storeys. The site is bounded to the east by the Cadbury’s factory, owned by Mondelez Europe; to the north by the former Chiver’s jam factory; and to the west by Northside Retail Park.

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Consultants for the applicants, Tom Phillips & Associates, told the council the homes “are desperately needed amid the current housing crisis”.

However, planning permission was refused across three headings including one relating to the light-bellied Brent goose.

The council said the applicant had failed to demonstrate to its satisfaction that the integrity of North Bull Island, South Dublin Bay and Baldoyle Special Protection Areas (SPAs) will not be adversely affected, particularly when considering the combined effects of other projects.

Planners stated that documentation lodged “fails to provide scientific evidence based on robust data analysis to objectively conclude that the loss of the Cadbury’s pitch-and-putt site as a result of development, has not, and will not have, a significant negative effect on the light-bellied Brent goose population of Dublin Bay”.

The light-bellied Brent goose is a winter migrant from high-Arctic Canada. Most fly to Ireland between October and April.

The planning authority also refused planning permission after finding the applicant had failed to demonstrate that its proposed assisted-living accommodation would be sufficiently different from the standard residential units.

Its report stated the quality of the apartment units proposed was “seriously concerning given the lack of adequate natural light for such a high number of units”.

The proposal faced opposition from the owners of Northside Retail Park, who told Dublin City Council it believed the plans should be refused.

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