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MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor is standing down in his planning bid to construct a boutique style sea-side hotel for Howth in north county Dublin.
McGregor’s G Boppers Ltd has opted not to appeal to An Bord Pleanála Fingal County Council’s planning refusal for a 35-bedroom hotel after a wave of local opposition.
One local woman raised concerns that the hotel may be an Ibiza-style party venue on the site of the The Waterside Bar, Harbour Road and Church Street, Howth.
G Boppers Ltd was seeking planning permission to demolish a part four-storey and part two-storey building and in their place construct a part five-storey and part four-storey terraced building.
It is now open to G Boppers Ltd to lodge revised plans for the site in order to meet Council planners’ concerns.
In the refusal on two grounds, the Council stated that taking into account the location of the hotel at Church Street, Howth and the preserved view along the street, the proposal “would interfere with the character of the landscape or with a view or prospect of special amenity value or natural interest or beauty”.
The Council also found that the development proposal would adversely affect an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) and contravene the Fingal County Development Plan.
The planning authority refused the scheme on these grounds after finding that there was an absence of a high quality architectural approach to justify demolishing an existing significant building within the ACA taken in conjunction with the design, scale, mass and height of the planned hotel.
A Design Report lodged with the application by Prof Cathal O’Neill + Company Architects contended that the scheme “seeks to make appropriate use of the site which has been under-utilised for many years and to provide guest accommodation which is sorely needed in the area”.
Architect with the firm Garrett O’Neill told the council: “Local social media laments the loss of hotels including the St Lawrence Hotel, Royal Hotel, Sutton Castle, Howth Lodge and, in the more distant past, the Waverly Hotel. Currently, the Booking.com website lists only one B&B and one Guest House on Howth Head.”
O’Neill stated that the design of the proposed scheme “retains the existing public house use which is known to be well over one hundred years old, and to have a related restaurant which avails of the picturesque location and views”.
Advancing the case for the hotel, O’Neill said: “We believe the proposed hotel use is respectful of the scale and massing of the existing townscape and integrates well with the urban grain.”
He contended that “the proposed mix of long established public house use with the traditionally complementary accommodation function could not be more appropriate to this seaside location”.
However, local resident Monica Lambert told the Council that she strongly objected “to the unprecedented large roof garden/beer garden”.
“While it is softly couched as a garden for residents it will without doubt be used as a beer and party garden reminiscent of Ibiza parties,” she said.
“This is a quiet residential area and the current proposal is unprecedented and wholly out of character with a quiet residential area.”
In total, the Council received 19 third-party submissions.
P&L Rickard of Dunbo Hill, Howth told the council that the proposal is “out of scale” “oversized” and “nondescript”.
Noel Loftus told the council that he resides next door to the proposed hotel and while there are many aspects of the proposed development that he welcomes, he was limiting his “strong objection” to just one aspect – “the large outdoor terraced balcony.”
The St Lawrence Quay Management Ltd represents 18 apartment owners on Harbour Rd.
On their behalf, company secretary, Brona Carton told the council that the proposed roof terrace for hotel residents’ use would result in an increase in noise in the area creating a nuisance for local residential and which may continue late into the night.
The objection added: “The high level roof terrace will overlook domestic properties in the area, including their gardens and terraces. This will result in the loss of privacy for those properties including the St Lawrence Quay development.”
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So sad …. I hope there family is at peace …
Their.
poor lady, still at 66, that’s an admirable way to spend your time, you could live for longer on the couch, but experience much less.
Very sad for her family. Its probably hard for me to grasp the enormity of the area she was hiking in, as I instinctively think ‘just keep going 1 direction, you’ll meet civilization eventually’
Even going in “one direction” becomes a problem in such a large wooded area unless you know how to navigate by the sun or stars. For some reason humans seem pre programmed to wander in circles.
Generally to do with your stride lengths being different, no? Without specific markers we can not walk in straight lines over time, we always gradually move more to the left or right (depends on the person)
So sad, at least her family got closure
She died alone. How awful for her. All the stories and reality documentaries that are shown on T. V. mounts up to nothing when you are alone in a situation such as this.
interesting story. If she had put some effort into having an App like viewranger that would track her location using GPS she would have found her way back to the trail.
You must have missed the part about her not having phone signal . . . Poor lady may she rest in peace.
Dave you’re a idiot.
Dave you muppet, most of those apps won’t function on the Appalachian trail. A compass and map will save you quicker than a crap app on your phone. Oh and have a heart while you’re at it.
you don’t need a phone signal, you have the maps on your phone and the GPS tells you where you are.
Isnt there a compass app for phones?
Hmm, Dave, I wonder did she pack a charger?
a charger would have helped, I wouldn’t even go out for a weekend without having a 3x charger. 80% of people doing the AT carry some kind of GPS these days and the trail itself is very well marked.
Thank you Captain Hindsight!! God bless you!!
Prize idiot.
Dave is right. I hike these trails and I have a app on my iPhone that shows your location by GPS. You won’t get a phone signal but the app works from satellite signals.
There’s no app to fix Dave’s problem.
Indeed and anyone who would trust their life to a cell phone app should not be on the trail. They are good indicators but not exactly safety specced equipment.
A good Personal Locator Beacon connecting with the COSPAS SARSAT is the only way to go. Phone sized radio beacons which will transmit for min 24 hours and cost only C.€250.
Tragic what happened to this lady but hopefully anyone reading this will consider purchasing one of these devices, if they are going into the real wild (or even up our own mountains)
Dave is not an idiot.
GPS has nothing to do with phone signals.
A GPS device communicates directly with satellites orbiting overhead.
A GPS device times the signals from known satellites and works out the exact position ion the ground.
The “constellation” of overhead GPS satellites covers all areas on the earth.
As you might have guessed…….it was once top secret American military technology.
Before mobile phones.
P.S.
This picture showy you what your GPS receiver connects to:
https://lh5.ggpht.com/AUlwKe40rbidPHxZvDKdv-Rt0JawyKJGLwOvSXio21J6Nlg6XxgDFcEM-yNuG1eQVA=h900
Good man Dave . You are a great wealth of information , if a bit insensitive . I am embarrassed for you.
I’ve hiked part of the application trail and while some parts are very well marked others others not. My biggest pet peeve there was the amount of times we ended up following trails but not the correct ones.Im guessing she must have taken a wrong trail somewhere because even in such a vast wilderness the main trail will have a steady stream of hikers. Im glad her family have peace. I wonder will they release the journal.
She was only three or four miles away from the trail.
About an hour’s walk.
She should have “walked the compass and returned if unsuccessful”.
If she marked the spot she was lost and systematically walk 5 miles from her lost point and then returned she could have covered “all points of the compass” (N,S,E,W,NE,SE SW,NW) and reached safety.
Clear thinking.
Tragically…a dirt cheap ($50) GPS device would have saved her…NO phone signal is required for GPS.
A cheap GPS receiver would tell her where she was anywhere on the earth to an accuracy of a meter or two.
That is so sad!! Very brave woman. It must have been very lonely and frightening for her. To know that you’re not getting out alive. Never to see your husband and daughter again!!
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