Planning permission for a complex incorporating an Irish cultural centre at the heart of Dublin's Temple Bar has been refused by An Bord Pleanala. The centre would have been located in a hotel/pub scheme.
In its fourth successive refusal of such schemes in recent months, the appeals board turned down plans by Gael Linn and Fitzers, the restaurant chain, for the development of Cecilia House as a 41-bedroom hotel with a public bar incorporating the cultural centre.
The Fitzers/Gael Linn consortium's scheme, which also included an adjoining three-storey warehouse, had been approved by Dublin Corporation last April. It was appealed to An Bord Pleanala by Temple Bar Properties (TBP) and a number of local residents. Yesterday TBP, the State agency in charge of developing Dublin's cultural quarter, welcomed the ruling.
The board refused permission because of "the proximity of the site to residential property, the extent of public bars/restaurants in the vicinity and in the Temple Bar area generally, and the size of the proposed public bar/restaurant relative to the overall size and function of the hotel.
"By reason of late-night activity and the associated disturbance it would generate," the board said the scheme "would seriously injure the amenities of property in the vicinity and would contravene materially the provisions of the current development plan for the area."
An Bord Pleanala said the scheme would "constitute over-development of the site" having regard to its scale and location in a designated conservation area and to the fact that the two buildings - numbers 3 and 4 Cecilia Street - are listed for protection.
Ms Laura Magahy, TBP's managing director, said the board had made a "watershed decision". "We are delighted that An Bord Pleanala are taking these issues very seriously. It shows that they regard the future of Temple Bar as being of the utmost importance."
Last month, in another decision welcomed by TBP, the board overturned another permission granted by the corporation for the development of a pub/restaurant with apartments overhead on the former Blazes site in Lower Exchange Street. TBP is currently developing 189 apartments, with retail units at street level, on a nearby site and was anxious to ensure that the residential amenity of the area would be protected. This scheme, which includes a nine-storey tower, is to be completed by mid-1999.
A report by Indecon economic consultants commissioned by TBP estimated that Dublin was losing £57 million in revenue from high-spending tourists because of the "stag/hen party" trade from Britain. All pubs in Temple Bar have stopped serving such groups.
It is now expected that Cecilia House will be refurbished for office use, with retail at ground-floor level. The adjoining three-storey warehouse was recently sold for £600,000 and there are plans to develop it as a hostel.