Fingal County Council has told Dublin airport operator, daa, that it would be hard for it to support additional parking for existing airport staff in response to daa plans for a 950 space car park for airport staff.
As part of pre-planning consultations with the planning authority, the council told daa that it would be hard to support the planning application for an additional 950 car spaces "due to recent national policy shifts towards a greater emphasis on public and sustainable transport modes and a shift away from private car use".
The Council also told daa that the staff car park proposal is contrary to some of the development objectives contained in the Fingal Development Plan and Local Area Plan and that, as a result, the Council considered the proposal to be a material contravention of those plans.
In the pre-planning consultations, the planning authority also advised that the presented justification for the proposed car parking spaces as being replacement parking spaces "was not strong enough to support the proposed quantum of parking".
In the planning application lodged with Fingal Co Council earlier this month, daa is seeking planning permission for a westwards extension of the existing Holiday Blue long term car-park for the additional 950 "airport staff car parking spaces".
In response to the Council concerns at pre-planning stages, daa representatives told the Council that the proposed car-park "is the minimum number of staff car parking spaces required to meet existing demand".
Daa also stated that the proposal represents a like-for-like replacement of existing employee car parking spaces displaced from developments that have occurred across the airport campus.
Daa told the council that the provision of an appropriate level of staff car parking is a key component of the Surface Access Strategy, which will see staff travelling from the south of the airport parking in this location.
The Dublin airport operator stressed that what is proposed "is not additional car parking, but will support existing airport staff car parking, which remains an essential requirement of airport operations".
The exchanges between the Council and daa are contained in a 32 page planning report lodged with the application by planning consultants for daa, Coakley O'Neill.
In the report, Coakley O'Neill state that over the past decade as Dublin Airport has grown, several locations occupied by airport staff car parks have been consumed by other developments.
The report says that this is predicted to continue to be the case as Dublin airport develops and "will require airport staff parking to be reinstalled elsewhere to cater for this displacement and to help alleviate congestion within the central campus".
The report adds that the loss of airport staff car parking spaces due to displacement "is putting significant pressure on the management of remaining parking assets and airport operations".
The report states that "staff are having to park where possible on the airport campus".
It adds that the proposal will provide a co-ordinated, consolidated, and controlled approach to staff parking aligned with the total of 5,360 spaces permitted by An Bord Pleanála.
The planning report also states that the scheme will ensure daa’s airline customers’ needs for their staff are met; there are no anticipated negative impacts on adjoining land uses and the principles established by the grant of permission for T2 will be adhered to.
A decision is due on the application in August.
- reporting Gordon Deegan
