Irish Times writer fights club licence

'IRISH Times' environment editor Frank McDonald has objected to a night spot close to where he lives getting a song and dance licence.
In October last year, he was refused leave by a judge to object at District Court level to the licence being granted to the Peig Sayers Hotel Partnership, which trades as The Mezz, The Hub and The River House in Temple Bar, Dublin.
Mr McDonald, whose address was given in the Circuit Court yesterday as The Granary, Temple Lane South, has appealed to the Circuit Court on his own behalf and that of Granary Management, which manages The Granary.
© Irish Independent

Ballsbridge plans scuppered?

Did anyone catch that story in The Irish Times today about how Dublin City Council plans to cap the height of buildings in Ballsbridge? Will this scupper old Sean Dunne's plans for the area? His 32 storey building may now not be possible on the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotel sites.

The reason for this is the proposed local area plan that will restrict the height of buildings in the area. The plan, written by town planning consultants Urban Initiatives, has been presented to the local city councillors and will be put out to public consultation later this month. According to The Irish Times, it focuses on the "urban village" centre of Ballsbridge around the junction of Pembroke Road, Shelbourne Road and Merrion Road, especially the development opportunities presented by large sites such as the seven-acre Jurys/Berkeley Court site bought by developer Sean Dunne for €380 million last year.

Personally I think that this is not the ideal location for tall buildings, but the DEGW Study wasn't strong enough and only Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is funding a study on tall buildings at present. Hopefully the Local Area Plan will give some guidance.

For details on local area plans see my October blogs!

Parks & Designations: Ireland criticised on conservation

Ireland is falling behind the rest of Europe in implementing key nature conservation measures, according to a new report on global conservation from the World Wildlife Fund.

It said that while Ireland had taken important steps to implement European nature conservation legislation, the Government had failed to allocate sufficient resources for implementation.

In a statement last night An Taisce said the small increase announced for the Budget recently would do little to rectify "the huge shortfalls facing this area in the past decade and the quantity of catch-up to be done".

Landfills among State's leading air polluters

A report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which names 183 Irish businesses as among the State's leading polluters, is to be published by the European Union today.

The EPA refused to name the Irish facilities in advance of their publication on the European Pollutant Emission Register, but The Irish Times has established that most landfills are included in the air pollutants section, as are a number of ESB installations, agricultural industries and many companies in the pharmaceutical sector.

It is understood that the closure of the IFI fertiliser plants in Cork and Wicklow had a very positive impact on the State's emissions as a whole.

Inclusion on the register does not mean that the companies or installations are in breach of their pollution control licences, but that they are among the largest sources of pollution in the State. The EU requires these to be monitored and the results published on the internet.

Ireland does not have serious outdoor air quality problems. This is largely due to the eradication of coal burning in many urban areas during the 1980s and the early 1990s.

The biggest threat now facing Ireland's air quality is emissions from road traffic. The EPA notes, however, that short-term traffic restrictions to improve air quality would be a major new challenge for local authorities.

The EPA's director of environmental enforcement, Dara Lynott, said the figures revealed a number of positive trends, with decreases in the emission of several pollutants from industrial and waste facilities.

He said the register indicates sulphur dioxide fell by 43 per cent between 2001 and 2004, nitrogen dioxide fell by 8 per cent and methane levels fell by 30 per cent.

While Ireland's national carbon dioxide emissions in 2004 were three per cent down on the 2001 levels, reaching 45,266 tonnes in 2004, carbon dioxide emissions from large/complex industry reporting for this register dropped by more than 14 per cent between 2001 and 2004. Carbon dioxide emissions from industries reporting to the register represent 45 per cent of the national total.

The report also noted a move towards more environmentally friendly energy.

The register will be available at www.eper.cec.eu.int/eper