HISTORY DOESN'T relate if Ronan Keatingtook any time off from his world "Ronan" tour to help with Abington Residents Association's planning battle to stop an apartment block at the entrance to the exclusive estate being raised in height by a storey.
If he did, it will have all been in vain. The residents lost the fight and An Bord Pleanálahas approved a fourth storey for the apartment block at Abington Wood which will give it two 148sq m (1,593sq ft) penthouse apartments with large terraces.
Fiona Fair, the planning inspector, recommended that the board approve the development. The report mentioned that the butterfly roof would only increase the overall height by 3 metres.
Residents, however, felt that it would overlook private residential amenity space and said that some customers of the crèche on the ground floor of the apartment block use the roundabout in Abington to turn their cars which they said is “unacceptable” because Abington is a private estate.
They also complained that a four-storey height is unprecedented in the area. Other well known residents of Abington include Westlife's Nicky Byrneand his wife Georgina Ahern.
