Residents locked in bitter battle over hospital road

A road running through Beaumont Hospital has been raised to a height where traffic is running level with the tops of adjacent garden walls, because of an oversight by Dublin City Council (DCC).

The development is the source of an ongoing row between health authorities and residents in the Ardmore/Montrose area whose houses back onto the road. Residents argue their privacy is compromised as anyone driving along the road has full view of their back gardens.

They are also concerned about safety, given the road is, in places, higher than their garden walls.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said his house was previously separated from the hospital by a 12ft high wall, but the road is now 3ft higher.

He said in places, it was up to two metres higher. “We are overlooked by traffic, anyone driving by in a car can look over my wall from the hospital side. We have concerns about privacy and security,” he said.

Sinn Féin councillor Micheal McDonncha said the height of the road was “hugely obtrusive”.

“Local residents oppose the road in that form, they are trying to get the whole thing reversed,” he said.

The row has dragged on for more than a year and one lane of the three lane road remains closed as discussions to resolve the situation continue between residents, the HSE, DCC and Beaumont Hospital.

DCC has already admitted it did not study the planning application detailing the road alignment properly.

Eoghan Madden, senior engineer with roads and traffic planning, told a meeting of the council’s north central area committee last November, that while the council was aware the road was moving closer to the boundary wall, they were not aware it was going to be raised.

“Maybe I didn’t look at the drawings well enough when they came in, but we did not glean from the lodged plans that there was to be a raise in the level of the road,” Mr Madden said. Had the council realised this, they “would have been concerned”, he said.

The road re-alignment was part of a planning application to develop a state-of-the-art acute admissions psychiatric unit at Beaumont, to replace services historically provided at St Ita’s in Portrane.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association has raised concerns about the length of time it is taking to open the new unit. Spokesman Michael Guilfoyle said patients are being housed inappropriately in the interim, including 27 patients at a 24-bed unit in Fairview. Other patients were being dispersed to Cavan and Navan, he said.

Junior minister with responsibility for mental health Kathleen Lynch previously told the Dáil the new unit would be open in June.

A spokesperson for the HSE said yesterday that “occupancy by HSE mental health services is still anticipated for late August/early Sept 2013”.