Residents blocking entrance to O'Callaghan Dublin hotel extension site, court hears
High Court Reporter
A number of residents living next to an O'Callaghan Group hotel extension construction site in Dublin's south inner city have been blocking access to the premises for vehicles, the High Court has heard.
Residents living next to the entrance to the site at Boyne Lane, where the Alex Hotel extension is underway, told the court they are protesting because they are suffering serious nuisance from the works.
On Monday, the court granted an interim injunction to the hotel operators, Sherborough Enterprises Ltd and Persian Properties Unlimited Company, following a one-side only represented application.
The injunction restrained two named defendants, local residents Doreen O'Connor and Celine Quinn, as well as "persons unknown" from blocking access to the Boyne Lane construction site behind the hotel.
On Thursday, O'Connor, Quinn, and two other residents who have yet to be formally joined to the proceedings turned up in court.
They told Judge Oisín Quinn they had protested because of problems caused by the construction activity, including walls in one flat shaking and lorries idling outside their homes from 5am with radios playing.
They also said they had been seeking to meet with company director Charles O'Callaghan.
O'Connor said they had been dealing in good faith and had agreed to go to mediation, but found out on Tuesday morning that an injunction had been granted.
"They did not have to go to these extremes if he is just willing to speak to you", she said.
Stephen Walsh, for the hotel companies, said following Monday's order restraining the blocking of access to the site, construction professionals were allowed to get through the gate, but not large vehicles, with residents standing in front of it.
The residents had also made it clear they would not allow scaffolding to be erected on Dublin City Council-owned land next to the flats, which is required as part of the building works, he said.
The council had permitted his clients to put scaffolding there "without which the gable wall will simply collapse," he said.
Counsel also said his clients had engaged with the residents and made an open offer but the difficulty was, and it has happened in similar cases, that deals had been struck for compensation with one group of residents but not another.
The mediation proposal had only arisen on Wednesday, but it had to be a condition of mediation that the access to the site would be allowed, he said.
Judge Quinn said the papers needed to be formally served on the defendants so that they could get legal advice.
He said it was clear there should be "significant and substantial efforts" to reach a settlement through mediation and he adjourned the matter for a week.
