MICHELLE MORRISON, wife of singer Van Morrison, was deeply upset at what she described as an attempt to “impugn my credibility” over claims she had agreed to the relocation of the entrance to the driveway of her neighbour’s home, the High Court heard yesterday.
Ms Morrison said she “categorically denied” claims by an architect for her Dalkey neighbours, Mary and Desmond Kavanagh, that she at any stage requested them to move the entrance to its current location.
To do so would have meant further intrusion on her privacy at the front of her home, Kilross House, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Dublin, she said.
She made the assertions in a new sworn statement to the court on the fifth day of her action against Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Ms Morrison claims the council failed to protect her privacy when dealing with planning permissions for the Kavanaghs’ neighbouring 7,500sq ft Mount Alverno home on Sorrento Road.
She claims the Kavanaghs do not have a valid order of compliance with planning permission because the work on the relocated driveway was unauthorised development at the time they sought the order for compliance.
She also claims a landscaping scheme related to tree planting at the rear of the two properties was not in compliance with the permission because it involved planting shrubs rather than trees.
In her new affidavit, Ms Morrison said she was “deeply upset” by what she said was an attempt by the Kavanaghs to “impugn my credibility” in the proceedings by suggesting she had requested them to relocate the entrance way.
The Kavanaghs had been aware for a lengthy period of time, through legal correspondence and appeals to An Bord Pleanála against the planning applications, she had “strenuously objected” to the relocation of the driveway, she said.
In submissions for the council, Maireád Coghlan, said An Bord Pleanála had referred the detail about tree-planting to the council which had dealt with the matter in accordance with the permission.
This was effectively a neighbours’ dispute and a lot of the arguments had already been dealt with by the board, she said.
Ms Morrison had failed to established a sufficiently weighty argument to ground her application for leave to judicially review the council’s decision over planning compliance, Ms Coghlan said.
Earlier, the court heard there was strong disagreement between architects for both sides over whether Ms Morrison gave permission for the relocation of the entrance and the removal of a tree which screened the front of the Morrison home.
In an affidavit from the Kavanaghs’ architect Trevor Dobbyn, he said he obtained agreement from Ms Morrison’s architect, Bryan Roe, about the relocation of the entrance way.
In an unsworn statement supplied over the weekend, Mr Roe said he “strenuously disputes” Mr Dobbyn’s claims.
Mr Roe said he was concerned Mr Dobbyn had used an unagreed minute of a meeting between the two architects to justify Mr Dobbyn’s claims.
Mr Roe said he was confirming there was no agreement about the relocation.
The hearing continues today before Mr Justice Michael Hanna.