Supreme Court agrees to hear residents appeal
Artists impression of proposed visitor centre

Supreme Court agrees to hear residents appeal

THE ongoing saga of the planned development of a €15m visitor centre at the Hellfire Club carried on this week, after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a local residents’ group’s appeal against the plans.

This follows on from the Hellfire Massy Residents’ Association’s (HMRA) unsuccessful attempt at appealing the High Court’s decision to uphold the planning permission that An Bord Pleanála granted for the tourism project last October.

At that point, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the group had not raised a point of law of exceptional public importance that would allow for an appeal over his ruling to uphold planning permission for the project.

However, this week the Supreme Court agreed to hear HMRA’s appeal after the group applied for a ‘leapfrog appeal’, bypassing the Court of Appeal to be heard directly by the Supreme Court.

A panel of three judges from the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal, as it was their view that a matter of general public importance arises in the appeal.

As previously reported in The Echo, the tourism project includes plans for the development of a visitor centre with an exhibition space, a panoramic café, toilets, changing facilities, a walkers’ lounge, an education centre and retail at the Hellfire Club. The HMRA, made up of residents from the Cruagh, Mount Venus, Kilakee, Stocking Lane and Edmondstown areas, has previously brought legal action against An Bord Pleanála, the State and South Dublin County Council.

The residents claimed that the visitor numbers for the project that were provided in the planning application by the council were “without foundation” and as such An Bord Pleanála “acted unlawfully” by taking them into account.

The group previously told The Echo they were not opposed to developing the area but believed that, in its current form, the development at Montpelier Hill would have environmental consequences.

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