Community groups opposing the £1.2 billion Spencer Dock development in Dublin will hold a protest today outside the first oral hearings of a planning appeal tribunal.
Mr Gerry Fay, a spokesman for the North Wall Community Association, said the principal reason for the protest outside the Bord Pleanala hearing was inequalities in the planning system. "It forces a small community like us, whose existence is threatened, to hold sponsored walks and bob-a-job days to pay for professional representation at this hearing. If this was a normal court, we would be provided with legal aid. We are going in against people with hundred of millions of pounds behind them." Dublin Corporation has granted partial permission for the commercial and residential development, including a £105 million conference and exhibition centre, on a 51-acre site between the Financial Services Centre and the Point.
That decision is being appealed to An Bord Pleanala by eight parties, including residents' groups, heritage organisations and the developer itself, Spencer Dock Development Company (SDDC). SDDC is a consortium consisting of Treasury Holdings, the docklands businessman Mr Harry Crosbie and CIE, which owns the largely disused site.
The proposed development includes 26 buildings of heights varying up to 95 metres, 36 metres higher than Liberty Hall. The corporation granted full planning permission last August for the conference centre and one office block, but only outline planning permission for the rest of the site, which it also scaled back from six million to 4.6 million sq ft. This means the developer would have to apply for planning permission for each subsequent phase of the site's development over a 10-year period.
The inspector hearing the appeal will be assisted by two others, one with expertise in high-rise buildings, the other in transport issues. As an indication of the quantity of material before the board, two of its staff spent a week photocopying documents.
The board is due to make its decision known before July 18th.