Six buildings on Dublin’s Moore Street are set to be added to the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) on Monday night, despite objections from their owners, UK property group Hammerson, that the move is “unlawful”.
The buildings are due for demolition or partial demolition under Hammerson’s plans for the redevelopment of the 5.5 acre site stretching from the old Carlton cinema on O’Connell Street to Moore Street, Henry Street and Parnell Street.
Dublin City councillors first sought protection for the buildings, which are associated with the 1916 battlefield site, seven years ago. However, the process stalled, in part because the site’s previous owners, Chartered Land, had denied the council’s inspectors access to the buildings, but also because the company had already secured permission for their demolition.
This permission, first granted in 2010, finally expired two months ago. While Hammerson has submitted planning applications for its development, due to a backlog of cases An Bord Pleanála has not yet issued a decision so there is no “live” application currently applying to the buildings.
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Historical significance
A report from the council’s head of planning, Richard Shakespeare, to be presented to councillors on Monday notes planning permission ran out in September and recommends the buildings be added to the list of protected structures.
The Moore Street buildings are 10 and 20/21 Moore Street and the walls between 12 and 13 Moore Street which show evidence of infilled “creep holes” used during the Rising for access between buildings on the terrace. Off Moore Street, the listing is recommended for the ground floor facades of 17-18 Henry Place and the O’Brien’s Mineral Water Building at 4-8 Henry Place, which was of historical significance due to its “direct connection with the events of the 1916 Rising and its occupation following the evacuation from the GPO”.
In submissions on the proposed listing, representatives of Hammerson said it would be “inappropriate and unlawful” to interfere with its pending applications by adding the buildings to the RPS. An Bord Pleanála was “the exclusive independent forum within which the merits of these issues are to be resolved”, they said.
“It would be fundamentally at variance with proper planning for the council to prejudice or attempt to exert influence on the outcome of pending planning process (of the board) by proposing to add these structures to the RPS at this particular time,” according to the planning and legal submissions.
“Major investment in the regeneration project was made in reliance on planning history, including the extant permission, and the long-standing strong policy, within relevant development plans favouring regeneration of these lands,” they said.
‘Time limitation’
They added: “No real effort was made to protect the buildings until after the submission of the planning applications. The council never before considered these interests worthy enough to merit inclusion on the RPS.”
In response, the council said it was of the opinion it was not precluded from adding a building to the RPS while there were “pending” planning applications. “Indeed, the planning authority may add a structure where it deems it ‘necessary or desirable’ and is not bound by any time limitation.”
There was, it said, a “long-standing and historic interest in considering the protection of 1916 buildings located on Henry Place and Moore Street”.
Meanwhile, an emergency motion urging Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy not to cancel the live-animal crib outside the Mansion House will be tabled by Fine Gael at the meeting.
Ms Conroy last month announced the crib, which has been erected at Christmas outside the Manion House on Dawson Street since 1995, would be stood down this year to be replaced with a more “inclusive” experience.
