Bray town centre plan appealed

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT: A PROPOSAL to build a €2 billion scheme in Bray town centre has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála…

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT:A PROPOSAL to build a €2 billion scheme in Bray town centre has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

The development, which encompasses former Bray golf club lands, straddles both Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and Bray Town Council's jurisdictions.

Pizarro Developments is looking to build 348 homes on the former Industrial Yarns site in Bray, in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's area, as well as shops and a new access off the Dublin Road.

On the Bray side of the development Pizarro is proposing a seafront residential area of over 600 homes.

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The core of the development would have more than 100 standard shops plus four anchor shops, 5,795sq m (62,376sq ft) of offices, a 103-bed hotel as well as 17 bars, restaurants and cinemas.

An Bord Pleanála received 10 third-party appeals, eight of which relate to the Wicklow side of the development. In its appeal Zapi Properties, owned by developers Seán Dunne and Seán Mulryan, says the development is premature on the grounds of insufficient capacity in the road network, the absence of flood defence works, and the fact there has been no decision on the Luas interconnector from Wilford interchange to Bray Dart station via the golf club lands.

Zapi is involved in a major residential and shopping and office development at Charlesland, just outside Greystones.

Joanne Connolly of Sutton Park, Dublin 13, says that the height of the development contravenes the restrictions set out in the Bray Golf Club Area Action Plan. She says that serious traffic congestion in Bray will be aggravated, and the scheme "cannot work" until the Dublin Road has been widened.

Maeve McCormack and Colm McCormack, of Newcourt Road, Bray, maintain the scheme "could damage the traditional retail and administrative centre of Bray town" by moving the retail and commercial centre to north of Dargle.

They say the proposed blocks are too high "to retain the visual link between the harbour and the mountains".

Bray Retailers Group is concerned about the scale of the retail element, saying it should be in proportion "to the needs of the area and the protection of the town centre".

Swap, which represents "residents of the lowlands of Little Bray", says the development is premature pending flood defence works and maintains the lands were rezoned Town Centre "in direct violation of OPW guidelines for flood plains".

Edel Morgan

Edel Morgan

Edel Morgan is Special Reports Editor of The Irish Times