Residents who reacted angrily to the recent demolition of a 19th-century Presbyterian church in Dublin have called for changes in the planning process to prevent a similar "tragedy" happening again.
The residents will present their proposals today to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Mary Freehill, along with a 98-page "book of regret" signed by 700 locals and other supporters. They want her to pass on to city councillors at tonight's monthly meeting their recommendations for changes to the 1999 Planning and Development Bill which will be before the Seanad shortly.
The 140-year-old church on Tritonville Road, Sandymount, was demolished last September, despite a last-minute plea by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, to save it.
Local councillors, TDs and the heritage group, An Taisce, had also called on the disused church's owner, the Presbyterian Residential Trust, to adapt the building for future use.
The trust demolished the church to make way for 17 sheltered units for the elderly and eight two-bedroom private apartments after it was granted planning permission. The chairman of An Taisce, Mr Michael Smith, said he hoped that the proposed destruction of a Presbyterian church on Adelaide Road in Dublin, which he said was more important than the Sandymount church, would not now go ahead.