Jackson Way drop land claim to €47.4 million

JACKSON WAY PROPERTIES have knocked off more than half the multi-million euro pay-out they were demanding in compensation for losing lands at Carrickmines to the last leg of the M50 motorway.

In a surprise move on the opening day of an arbitration hearing into the compensation claim yesterday, the company’s barrister said the demand now stood at 47.4 million - less than half the 116 million originally sought.

The reduction is not enough to prevent the claim being contested, however, as the undisclosed opening offer made by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, which took over 20 acres of Jackson Way’s land by compulsary purchase order, is still substantially below the revised demand.

Hugh O'Neill SC, for Jackson Way, did not give explicit reasons for lessening the claim but said the property market was “at its absolute height” in 2000 when the land was marked for purchase and this was a factor in the valuation.

Jackson Way are seeking damages both for the loss of the 20 acres, which had a valuable industrial zoning, and for the impact of the planned motorway on their remaining lands which total almost 90 acres.

The remaining lands are cut in two by the motorway, creating access problems, and while they carry the less valuable agricultural zoning, the company claims that if it were not for the motorway, they would have been rezoned for residential use, vastly increasing their worth. Mr O'Neill said successive county development plans and area action plans had stressed the need to provide lands for residential development and the Jackson Way lands would have met this need.

The county council accept some compensation is due but disputes the extent of the impact on the remaining Jackson Way lands and insists it will only value them on the basis of their existing agricultural zoning.

Dermot Flanagan SC, for the council, said that, with or without the motorway, the development potential of the land was limited because access to it was poor. It was served only by Golf Lane, a “country boreen” which was at best three and a half metres wide, had no footpath or public lighting and currently served the local golf course.

Mr Flanagan was critical of Jackson Way for failing to provide a detailed justification for the money they claimed. All they had submitted to the council was a document a page and a half long, he said.

He said the council had concerns about the ownership of the land as it feared further compensation claims if it turned out there were others with rights over the site.

Earlier this year, Jackson Way solicitor refused to disclose to the Flood Tribunal who owned the company which is being investigated by the Tribunal following claims that bribes were paid to influence zoning of lands in Carrickmines.

The arbitration hearing continues today and is likely to last a fortnight.