North Dublin residents have appealed Fingal County Council’s decision to ease restrictions on the operation of Dublin Airport’s new €320 million runway.
This comes after An Bord Pleanála confirmed that it had received four separate appeals against last month’s decision by the council to ease planning restrictions on the airport’s north runway.
The move by the residents also stalls the projected €6 million spend by the operator of Dublin Airport, DAA, to insulate an estimated 300 homes from night-time air traffic noise.
The projected €6 million spend follows the council attaching a condition to the planning permission that eligible householders around the airport are to receive a €20,000 grant from the airport operator to insulate their homes from night-time air traffic noise.
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The new runway opened to commercial air traffic last week but the planning restrictions from the original 2007 planning permission for the project are to remain in place until An Bord Pleanála makes a determination on the appeals and that is likely to be made some time in 2023.
In its decision, the local authority amended two planning conditions that would allow the 3.1km runway be used between 6am and midnight and that a noise quota system would be used to dictate the number of night-time flights at the airport.
To date, appeals have been lodged by Trevor Redmond, Sheelagh Morris and others, Brian Murphy and Niamh Maher, and the closing date for appeals is Monday.
In his appeal, Mr Redmond said that “to the credit of An Bord Pleanála”, it imposed restrictions concerning noise mitigation and night-time flights concerning the new runway in the 2007 permission.
Mr Redmond from Shallon Lane, The Ward contended that “these restrictions are valid and meaningful and give us, the community, which will be reduced to live with the enormous negative effects of the new runway at Dublin Airport, a tiny degree of protection for our future miserable existence, living in our homes, if forced to do so”.
Mr Redmond argued that “nothing has changed that should allow the applicant, DAA, to alter these few restrictions”.
