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Cork rugby club loses battle in four-year planning war with McDonald's over boundary wall

Dolphin RFC has been involved in a bitter dispute with a neighbouring McDonald’s.

Screenshot 2018-07-02 at 00.24.28 McDonald's Ballyphehane, with Irish Independent Park in the background

A CO CORK rugby club has lost an appeal against its neighbouring McDonald’s restaurant over the building, and retention, of a boundary wall between the two properties.

Planning body An Bord Pleanála dismissed the appeal lodged by the club last September, stating in its decision that “the development for which retention is sought… would not seriously injure the amenities of the area and would be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

That appeal related to the most recent planning application by the fast food restaurant – seeking to retain the wall and fence which had already been built, and to build a second fence, together with “new planting and landscaping treatments along the western site boundary and all associated works to facilitate same”

Liaison

Ballyphehane-based Dolphin RFC, first founded in 1902, had cautiously acceded to the fast food retailer’s initial plans to construct a three-metre-high wall on its western boundary with the club’s Musgrave Park (now Irish Independent Park) home, first announced in 2014.

To that end, Dolphin agreed in March 2014 that Munster Rugby, the club’s parent body and landlord for its grounds, should be the chief liaison with McDonald’s regarding the proposed wall-build. Munster Rugby was also the entity which sold the McDonald’s site to the fast food franchise in the first place.

Screenshot 2018-07-02 at 00.23.50 The rugby club, visible to the rear of the McDonald's drive-thru Google Maps Google Maps

Munster then informed Dolphin that it would be stumping up half the cost of the proposed wall.

McDonald’s subsequently constructed, in December 2014, a low-lying brick wall with a 2.4 metre ‘paladin’ fence on top of it, between the two properties, with a five-metre slope to be inserted on Dolphin’s side between the fence and the club pitch.

Dolphin insisted that both the fence and the slope ran contrary to the planning permission first granted by Cork City Council for the initial concrete wall.

Prohibitive

Munster subsequently told Dolphin that the wall itself as initially envisioned would not be built as proposed as the cost, estimated at €200,000, would be prohibitive, something the club vehemently disagreed with.

Dolphin’s complaints appear to have been on two fronts in the main – that the wall and fence that was eventually constructed left the club ‘exposed’, and that privacy from the general public was being denied, and secondly, that the McDonald’s development was seriously curtailing the space available for the club’s pitch.

Screenshot 2018-07-02 at 00.30.27 The wall / fence which caused it all, pictured in May 2017 Cork City Council / An Bord Pleanála Cork City Council / An Bord Pleanála / An Bord Pleanála

In April 2015, Munster informed Dolphin that it had always been its intention that a low-lying wall with fencing be constructed.

In its appeal to An Bord Pleanála over the latest planning application, Dolphin outlined the dissatisfaction it had expressed towards Cork City Council over how it had conducted itself regarding the initial wall construction:

“We placed our confidence in your planning system, and to date your planning system has let us down.”

Such sentiments may have been exacerbated by this latest appeal refusal.

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14 Comments
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    Mute Pat Daly
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 7:42 AM

    Typical of the attitude of the Munster branch towards the club’s choosing to dictate rather then support when it comes to spending money gained on the back of the grass roots

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    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 6:07 PM

    @Pat Daly: in fairness Dolphin’s reasoning was pretty weak? Privacy? FFS

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 7:43 AM

    A few more pictures needed

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 9:49 AM

    @Martin Sinnott: i’ll be honest the way it is now is fine. Building a massive concrete wall would look terrible never mind be very expensive.

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 5:57 PM

    @Martin Sinnott: basically its a security fence and you can see onto the pitches. I don’t see a problem with this fence. A concrete wall would look terrible.

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    Mute Trevor Donoghue
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 2:46 PM

    So the club sold the land to Mc donalds to build a mc donalds on and now the club is annoyed that mc donalds built a mcdonalds?

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    Mute Rossi Rossborough
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 3:51 PM

    @Trevor Donoghue:

    Lol, pretty much!

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 6:53 AM

    Sounds like a ‘line break’ to me!

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    Mute eastsmer
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 11:56 AM

    Munster Rugby was also the entity which sold the McDonald’s site to the fast food franchise in the first place.

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    Mute Charlie Hunter
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 8:41 AM

    They should organise a protest a la Doonbeg wall scenario, get rent-a-mob down in numbers and overturn the ruling on humanitarian grounds …be handy for the protestors too with a McDonald’s in the vicinity for a bit of grub when they’re famished from all the chanting.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 11:02 AM

    So you can sit in McDonald’s eating your big Mac and watch a crap rugby team play.
    Is it more to do with embarrassment than anything else?

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    Mute Rossi Rossborough
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 3:45 PM

    @Gerry Fallon:
    Gerry you are a, emmmmm, oh I know .
    A spastic!!!

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    Mute Paul Holland
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 12:55 PM

    I never like conflict like this because people lose and money goes on legal fees. I don’t know enough to form an honest opinion but I would say to the rugby club – you mightn’t be as badly off as the GAA were in Limerick when they tried to develop Punch Park in the city decades ago

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    Mute Eilish Kelly
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    Jul 4th 2018, 9:51 AM

    why don’t they build a wooden 8ft fence on there side of the boundary line. They could even paint a mural on the side facing out to McDonald’s on how playing GAA makes u fit ,healthy and part of the community ,Were eating junk food (burgers) makes u fat and unhealthy

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