Dublin Airport operator DAA has said that allowing it to demolish an unused traffic ramp at Terminal 1 would “unlock a critical development opportunity at the core of the Dublin Airport campus”, according to the operator’s chief commercial and development Officer, Vincent Harrison
Mr Harrison also told An Bord Pleanála, in an appeal contesting Fingal Co Council’s refusal of the application last month, that DAA considered “the removal of redundant, deteriorating structures within the airport campus is a necessary and strategic confirmation of the importance of unlocking future airport development potential”.
Mr Harrison said that “what is clear is that the application site, lying as it does centrally between two national airport terminals and at the heart of the eastern campus, makes it an extremely valuable site, particularly in the context of a limited and finite land resource”.
He said that as the airport operator “DAA needs certainty that they can be removed in order that development opportunities can be explored”.
The council refused planning after concluding that the application had failed to show an appropriate rationale or justification for the demolition of the spiral ramps which the council consider to be of technical and architectural interest.
In the accompanying statement to the appeal, Mr Harrison pointed out that the spiral ramps had not been used for almost 50 years.
Mr Harrison also said that the site on which the vehicle ramps were located was a strategic one, albeit the ability to use it in future had now been cast into question by the recent Fingal Co Council refusal.
He said that the airport operator was surprised to learn of the heritage value given that the ramps did not feature in the recently reviewed Record of Protected Structures.
“In our view, given the spirals have limited current use, no future use once the T1 facade project is complete, and that the site is not immediately required for airport purposes, permission for demolition of these structures is required now,” Mr Harrison said
He said that the ramps site “occupies a highly sensitive location within a heavily trafficked and constrained area and it will take time and careful planning to remove them”.
Mr Harrison said the demolition of the spiral ramps was supported by prevailing policy guidelines at the highest level and in the absence of any significant heritage values demolishing them would not detract from the airport’s identity as a national gateway.
