‘We’re not trying to slow things down’: Court-ordered demolition of homes behind schedule

The demolition of 29 modular homes built without planning permission near the Dublin-Wicklow border is under way, but “not happening quick enough for anyone”, the owner of the site has said. Richie McDermott said it was likely it would take a number of weeks before the demolition of all units at Chianti Park, Raheen, is completed. Judge Richard Humphreys set out in the High Court last July that the demolition or deconstruction of all units should take place between August 17th and September 21st. “It is behind, but the demolition guys are trying to salvage everything they can without putting it into skips,” McDermott said on Monday. READ MORE“They’re taking all the wood out, the windows, the roof tiles off, the wood off the roofs, and they’re trying to keep whatever they can without sending it to landfill. Environmentally, we’re trying to use and salvage whatever we can out of it … It’s a very slow process.”South Dublin County Council and resident John O’Neill had argued the development was unauthorised. Photograph Nick Bradshaw Situated on Mount Seskin Road and close to Brittas, Chianti Park was built in the late 1960s and acted as a trailer park alongside an adjoining site, Hillsbrook. About 10 residents are understood to be continuing to live at the back of both sites in mobile homes, chalets and trailers.South Dublin County Council and local resident John O’Neill brought applications in the Circuit Civil Court last year, claiming the development was unauthorised and that all units should be removed and the site restored.Their applications were opposed by the developer, Branach Developments Limited, and the site owners, Mullnassa Limited and Threshford Limited. The court found in favour of the council and O’Neill, but the developer and site owners appealed against the finding to the High Court.In court submissions, the developer and site owners had argued it was an exempted development under the Planning and Development Act.[ ‘We offered them free to the State’: 29 homes built without permission to be razed ]Michael O’Donnell, for the respondents, said the development fell within the exemption as it was consistent with the character and nature of the structures already on the site.Humphreys upheld the Circuit Court’s decision last June and said the development was a “particularly egregious case” of the disregard of planning law.McDermott, of Mullnassa Limited and Threshford Limited, said he visited the site on Monday and that council officials had also been regularly checking on progress. “It is being done and we’ve every intention of doing it,” he said. “We’re not trying to slow things down. I just want it done. That’s what I want. It’s down to the demolition crowd now to take it down whatever way they feel it’s best to take it down without causing too many problems.”Residents have written to the local authority over concerns about progress of the demolition, it is understood. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd McDermott said the site would likely be sold once demolition work was completed, which he expected would take a number of weeks. “It’s probably not happening quick enough for anyone, including myself, but we just have to do it right,” he said. It is understood that local residents wrote to the council over recent weeks with concerns about the progress of demolition. The local authority has not responded to queries. The original timeline set out by Humphreys provided for a “post-clearance visual validation” to be carried out by a council engineer between September 21st and 28th. This would confirm the complete removal of all structures, foundations and buried waste, if any, before any topsoil is placed.Other steps to be taken from then over specified periods ending on November 2nd included soil remediation and landscape reinstatement, as well as hedgerow and tree-planting.