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Tue, 15 Dec 1998 22:41:56 -0700
Judgment reserved in Lansdowne concert case
By Mary Carolan
Judgment was reserved by the Supreme Court yesterday
on a challenge by the trustees of the Irish Rugby Football
Union to a High Court decision that planning permission is
required for pop concerts at Lansdowne Road.
Mr Colm Allen SC, with Mr Garrett Simons, for the
trustees, said it was the first case in which the application
of planning legislation to pop concerts was fully before the
Supreme Court.
Mr Allen invited the five-judge court, presided over by the
Chief Justice, Mr Hamilton, to consider the question of the
very applicability of planning legislation to transient events
such as pop concerts.
Counsel rejected the submission by Dublin Corporation
that each pop concert represents a discrete act of
development for which permission is required. Planning
permission was never intended, he said, to regulate
transient events.
Last February the President of the High Court, Mr Justice
Morris, granted a declaration in favour of Dublin
Corporation to the effect that planning permission is
required for pop concerts.
Some local residents had objected to the concerts taking
place but, eventually, the Supreme Court decided the
concerts could be held on a once-off basis and they went
ahead on August 30th and 31st, 1997. Experts monitored
the noise levels and presented their conclusions to the
High Court.
In his judgment on the trustees' challenge last February,
Mr Justice Morris said he was satisfied the alteration in the
level and duration of noise during the U2 concerts
represented a material change of use from the holding of
sporting fixtures in the stadium.
He noted the accepted standard of 75 decibels was
exceeded at all stages of the U2 concert on August 30th.
The judge also accepted the evidence of two residents that
the noise levels caused them great distress. One woman
was moved by the promoters to a hotel for the night. He
also accepted the amplified noise was such that one could
not read, and that the television picture would jump so one
could not watch it.
The judge said that when one looked at the entire history of
the Lansdowne stadium from 1876, or took the five years
to June 1997 or any other period in between, one must
conclude the grounds were used only on rare occasions
for staging musical events.
In their appeal yesterday to the Supreme Court against Mr
Justice Morris's decision and subsequent declaration that
planning permission is required for pop concerts at
Lansdowne Road, Mr Allen submitted that the staging of
the concerts must be seen in the context of the use made
of Lansdowne Road.
The stadium was regularly used for large-scale sporting
events which had a significant impact on the surrounding
area in terms of traffic noise, pedestrian movement and
litter. That impact was similar to a pop concert.
Any difference in noise levels could not, of itself, amount to
a material change in use of the lands, Mr Allen argued.
Mr George Brady SC, with Ms Carol O'Farrell, for the
Corporation, rejected those arguments. While he accepted
there could be different uses of the Lansdowne Road
grounds, he said that was not the issue before the court.
There was no established use of Lansdowne Road for pop
concerts or musical events and the use of the stadium for
such events constituted a material change of use for
which permission was required, he said.
The Corporation also argued that the use of the stadium
for pop concerts does not constitute an occasional use of
the grounds under the planning acts. It said the established
and normal use of Lansdowne Road is for the playing of
football matches and the holding of pop concerts there
was not part of that normal use.
The argument by the IRFU that the character of the use of
land can be established only over a period of time was
also rejected.
The characteristics of land use would be apparent within a
short period, the Corporation submitted. The use history of
Lansdowne Road did not establish a recurring use for
concerts, or for other non-sporting events.
At the conclusion of the appeal yesterday, the Chief
Justice said the court would reserve judgment. He trusted
there would be no pop concerts at Lansdowne Road in the
meantime.
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