Residents oppose Trinity College’s student accommodation plan for Dartry

Residents in Dublin 6 have claimed that anti-social behaviour by students living at Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) student accommodation at Dartry, Dublin 6, would worsen if a new accommodation scheme proceeds.

Earlier this year, TCD lodged fast-track plans to An Bord Pleanála for a 358-bed student residential scheme for Trinity Hall in Dartry.

Planning documentation lodged with the Strategic Housing Development scheme states that it would provide “attractive, modern student accommodation built to best practice for sustainable development”.

TCD currently provides 995 bed spaces at Trinity Hall and planning consultants for the college, Declan Brassil & Company, state that the proposed development would “assist in addressing the current undersupply of student accommodation in Dublin city and reduce pressure on the private rental market”.

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However, the scheme is facing local opposition due to the scale of the development, and claims relating to anti-social behaviour.

An objection lodged by a management company Gelderbury Ltd for Temple Square South by Hughes Planning and Development Consultants states that their clients are living with anti-social, drunken and disorderly and other unsavoury behaviour from students.

The submission states this is predicted to substantially worsen with 358 additional students at Trinity Hall.

It states that anti-social behaviour and noise from the TCD student accommodation “is a point of strife for the residents in the area”.

Local objections

In another submission, Niall Reddy states that since the development of student accommodation in Trinity Hall, “the residents of Temple Square and Temple Road have been subjected to serious un-social behaviour”.

In another submission, local resident Roddy Slattery said TCD hall residents and their visitors “regularly depart late at night in a loud, mostly drunken state on their way down to the Milltown Luas station”.

An Bord Pleanála previously granted TCD the go-ahead for the student accommodation scheme at Trinity Hall in August 2020 despite local residents’ concerns.

However, after a local resident, Patricia Kenny of Temple Road,Dartry, challenged the decision in the High Court, the appeals board in February of last year consented to quashing the planning permission and to a costs order in the case.

TCD lodged a new application in January and a decision is due in May.

Asked to comment on the allegations of student anti-social behaviour, a TCD spokeswoman said on Monday: “As copies of the observations have not been received by the college from An Bord Pleanála, it would not be appropriate to make any comment at this time.”