The Church of Ireland Dean of Derry, the Very Rev William Morton, said yesterday that he and many of his parishioners intended to object to a planning application for a three-storey nightclub beside St Columb's Cathedral at London Street in the centre of Derry. A planning application has been lodged to demolish an existing bar beside the cathedral and replace it with a nightclub.
Dean Morton said he believed approval of the application would be detrimental to the cathedral and a nearby diocesan office and primary school. "There is an existing bar there and we have no problem with that, but to demolish it and replace it with a three-storey nightclub would, in our opinion, detract from the life of the cathedral," he said. "The current bar is probably closer to a church that any bar in Ireland."
The nightclub would overlook the cathedral graveyard, which contains graves from the time of the siege of the city.
Mr Tony Deehan, who lodged the planning application, said he was surprised by the opposition to the proposed development. "There has always been a pub on that site and the building is not in a good state of repair. It needs to be demolished and rebuilt. There is no intention to cause offence to anyone," he added.