Knockmitten residents not happy with heavy vehicle yard plans

By Maurice Garvey

APPEALS have been lodged with An Bord Pleanála by Knockmitten residents, who are unhappy with a decision by South Dublin County Council to grant permission for a heavy vehicle car yard in Western Industrial Estate.

Plans by Calin Bogdan include proposals for 16 parking spaces for heavy vehicles, and 36 ancillary car-parking spaces, and part-change use of an existing warehouse with the installation of two Portacabins for use as amenities by drivers at the Knockmitten Lane site.

When the plans were submitted to the council earlier this year, a number of residents and local businesses objected.

Among these, were Irish Soft Drinks Ltd, Diageo Baileys Global Supply, MaCabe Durney Barnes, and Brid Smith TD.

Diageo objected on the grounds of the “likelihood of an increase in vermin activity”, “odours” from heavy vehicles parked for “unknown periods” transporting waste material of “unknown origin.”

Deputy Smith requested what the intended business function was for the yard, and expressed concerns for the scale of the local road network, citing an “absence of traffic management” and a local elderly community.

Residents who appealed with ABP say there is a wall between their homes and the yard and “nothing to protect us from noise and smell.”

Plans state that drivers will collect their truck and depart between 6am-7am, returning between 8pm to 9pm, before returning home in their cars.

Weekend use would be “very little activity” with “just a few trucks going out doing an eight-hour shift.”

Residents fear this will affect their quality of life and hope their “wellbeing” will be taken into consideration when the Board make their decision.

ABP are due to make a decision on the appeal by December 13, 2016.