DUBLIN CITY Council is taking new legal proceedings against Athlone businessman Noel O'Gara over his management of the park at the centre of Dartmouth Square in Dublin 6.
The council is taking Mr O'Gara to the District Court next month for failing to remove tents from the park. It was previously successful in securing an injunction against Mr O'Gara over caravans on the site. Mr O'Gara bought the park in 2005 for about €10,000 from PJ Darley, whose ancestors built the square in the 1880s.
An Bord Pleanála had approved the council's compulsory purchase order for the land in 2006. However, the council allowed the order to lapse last June.
In a statement at the time, the council said it had decided not to proceed with the compulsory purchase process because of the possibility that it would have to pay a "substantial and financially prohibitive award" to Mr O'Gara.
However, local Labour councillor Oisín Quinn said the land was worth very little because the council had placed a tree preservation order on the park and had included it as part of an architectural conservation area. Mr O'Gara owed the council about €20,000 in court costs, he said.
