Drone delivery service Manna Drones has lodged plans with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for an aerial food delivery hub in Dundrum.
The proposed site for the hub is on an existing car park to the rear of Holy Cross Church and off the main street.
However, the plan is already encountering local opposition, with four objections lodged. In one, objector Olive Donnelly told the council that “drone use in residential areas poses serious risks. In Dublin 15, Manna has already caused widespread disruption: persistent noise, low-altitude flights over homes and schools and repeated residents’ complain ... these impacts are real, ongoing, and unacceptable.”
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This claim was contradicted by Manna on Wednesday with a spokesman saying that “in Dublin 15 we have received a warm welcome. We have received a total 77 complaints out of servicing an area of 150,000 people in over a year.”
In the Dáil last week, Opposition TDs warned of the growing noise disturbance by food delivery drones in Dublin with Social Democrat TD Garry Gannon warning of a “dystopian future” of drone activity.
The application is Manna’s first such application for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area and in a report lodged with the plans, Downey Chartered Town Planners said the proposal “represents an appropriately informed and correct approach to the much-needed service at this location on a currently underutilised area of the existing car park site”.
The report said Manna Drones’ proposal had “been scaled in a manner where any existing amenities of the area are not adversely affected in any way, nor any degradation of privacy arising from this subject development”.
In another objection to the proposal, Anita Phelan told the council that the sound of the drones was another noise disturbance which would undoubtedly take from the serenity of the space close to Dundrum church.
