The High Court has reserved judgment on an action by singer Van Morrison’s wife aimed at safeguarding the privacy of the couple’s home in Dalkey, Co Dublin.
Mr Justice Michael Hanna said he hoped to deliver judgment as soon as possible but indicated he might be unable to do so until late this year.
The judge earlier yesterday heard final legal submissions in the six-day case in which Michelle Morrison is seeking leave to bring a judicial review challenge to a permission compliance notice issued by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to her neighbours Mary and Desmond Kavanagh for the redevelopment of their home “Mount Alverno”, Sorrento Road, Dalkey.
Ms Morrison, who lives in neighbouring “Kilross House”, has claimed the permission is invalid and the Council failed to protect her privacy in dealing with the matter because it allowed the Kavanagh’s to remove trees which she claims would have provided her home with maximum screening. She claimed a proposal by her neighbours to instead plant shrubs would not have the same effect.
Ms Morrison claimed the work at Mount Alverno had led to a loss of privacy both at the front and back of her home and she had no choice but to bring court proceedings because of the alleged failure of the planning authority.
She claimed the council accepted compliance at a time when there were unauthorised works on the entrance to Mount Alverno even though this was later rectified by another planning permission.
The Council rejected her claims and said it was essentially a neighbours’s dispute. It also argued most of the issues had been dealt with by An Bord Pleanala which had referred the detail of tree planting back to the Council. That matter had dealt with in accordance with what the board required, the Council claimed.
The Kavanaghs, notice parties in the case, argued Ms Morrison’s case was characterised by “nit-picking” as shown by her complaint about the removal of trees on the far side of Mount Alverno which, they claimed, did not impinge on Kilross House at all.
Ms Morrison argued there was an important public policy issue over whether or not the Council could accept a compliance notice when, at that time, she claims the Kavanagh’s carried out unauthorised development by relocating the entrance to their front driveway.
She said trees would provide effective screening from the “considerable mass” of Mount Alverno which is 630 sq metres in size. The planting of shrubs like bay laurel would be reasonably effective in screening the ground floor of the Kavanagh home but not of the upper storey where a gangway type balcony leading to their master bedroom had been built, Ms Morrison claimed.
Three trees which had been removed would have broken up the visual mass and provided partial screening, she said. A similar effect would have been provided if another four new trees had been planted as per the planning permission, she also argued.
At the end of legal submissions yesterday, lawyers for both sides disputed a number of claims including whether the Kavanagh home — described by Ms Morrison’s counsel as a 7,500 square feet “Celtic-tiger” type dwelling — was actually that size.
Eamon Galligan SC, for Ms Morrison said it was 630 square metres (6,778 sq ft) and while that was not exactly 7,500 sq feet, it was approximately that figure.
Esmonde Keane SC, for the Kavanaghs, also disputed Mr Galligan’s claims that the removal of certain trees within the Mount Alverno property amounted to significant unauthorised development when An Bord Pleanala had stated it did not regard removal of trees as being a development matter at all. “We do not accept there has been significant unauthorised removal of trees”, Mr Keane said.
