St Anne’s GAA club submits planning permission for LED floodlighting again

AN APPLICATION has been submitted by St Anne’s GAA for the installation of a new LED floodlighting system at their pitch in Bohernabreena.

This system will consist of six 18-metre high columns, inclusive of all siteworks, associated ducting, column bases and LED fixtures for the club’s existing pitch.

In 2025, the GAA club was refused planning permission by SDCC for the installation of flood lights due to “significant adverse impacts on this sensitive ecological corridor” from the floodlights.

In this application they noted that the club has an existing playing field equipped with six floodlighting columns.

“However, under a recently approved planning application has been indicated that this ‘training’ field has been relocated as part of an agreed land swap . . . to facilitate the development of new residential housing on the adjoining site,” they said.

Permission was granted for that proposed development, consisting of 523 residential  units, in April 2025.

A number of requests were made by SDCC during the application process for further information from St Anne’s including a

“comprehensive” bat survey, spill light and glare assessments on any potential impact the floodlights would have on existing housing and Bohernabreena Cottages and on the proposed housing development, and visual impact analysis/photomontages of the floodlights against views of the Dublin Mountains.

South Dublin County Council’s planning department said that the proposed development failed to prove it was compliant with provisions in the South Dublin County Development Plan 2022-2028 such as NCBH (Natural, Cultural and Built Heritage) 8 Objective 5 which “seeks to seeks to protect the Upper Dodder Valley (from Old Bawn Bridge to Fort Bridge) as an ecological network free from intrusive lighting”.

“The Planning Authority is not satisfied that the proposed development would avoid significant adverse impacts on this sensitive ecological corridor,” they said, concluding that it would also “set an undesirable precedent for similar proposals.

A decision on the new application is expec in the coming weeks.