A proposed £25 million development in the centre of Bray, Co Wicklow, is being presented to objecting residents like a "public relations document", a solicitor claimed at an oral planning hearing yesterday.
Mr Joe Buckley, acting for objectors, told the planning board hearing in Bray that the presentation for the project represented "the art of the salesman combined with the puffing of the auction room".
He added: "It bears all the hallmarks of a public relations document rather than a thorough presentation and evaluation of planning criteria.
"Such a presentation has no place in the planning process and such success as this proposal has enjoyed to date represents a triumph of public relations over planning."
Mr Buckley said the developer used the words "linear park" for a pathway which was going nowhere within the development. The terms "therapeutic gardens" and "contemplative space" were used to describe an overlooked and shadowed space which might or might not contain a "reflective pool".
Yesterday's hearing under inspector, Mr Rory Summers, follows the granting of planning permission to Newlyn Developments by Bray Urban District Council last January for a new Town Hall, a new Eastern Health Board headquarters, a 44-bedroom hotel, pub and residential blocks of apartments.
The mixed-use scheme is on a five-and-a-quarter acre site off Bray's main street, which is either owned or occupied by Bray UDC, the VEC and the GAA club, Bray Emmets. Permission was granted subject to 47 conditions.
Yesterday, Newlyn Developments, which was appealing eight of these conditions, decided to withdraw four of its objections, including one involving its £190,918 contribution towards road infrastructure for the development.
Mr Colum O Broin, architect for the developer, said the project is a showcase for Bray, providing a new focus for local, commercial, cultural, civic and social life into the new millennium.
A new one-stop shop will be created for Bray UDC and Wicklow County Council, which will result in the provision of public services, such as car tax, planning and medical information. Office spaces will be provided for the proposed new Eastern Health Board headquarters.
However, the development is being vigorously opposed by parents of hundreds of schoolchildren of St Thomas's Community College, which is adjacent to the project.
Ms Anna McCann, parents' spokesman, told the hearing the planning authorities do not need to load the dice any further against the safety of students attending the college. She said: "We will end in a situation where a fight between a car and a child will result in a nightmare safety situation caused by excessive traffic generated by this development."
She added: "Due to the present heavy traffic numbers in and around the main street, one of our children would be safer being a rugby ball in a scrum than crossing the road at the school entrance."
Mr Ciaran O'Brien, secretary of the Novara and Sidmonton District Residents Association, claimed the development will further choke the town centre. Already on school days there are traffic jams of up to 3 km.
He said Emmet Park, which will contain the development partially, is a de facto public park. It is attached to three local schools which accommodate 2,600 primary and secondary schoolchildren, who use it for their sporting activities.
Urging refusal to the planning board, Mr John O'Sullivan, of An Taisce, said the development included the demolition of St Cronan's building, the present Town Hall. This represented a real loss to Bray's heritage.
A local Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Noel Keyes, a member of the council's heritage committee, claimed St Cronan's had been "deliberately neglected" over the years so it could be demolished for the new development. It would only need a new roof costing £35,000 to restore it.
The hearing continues today.