DAA files additional information with Fingal County Council after local authority said proposed coffee dock must go
The local authority has already told the DAA that it would have to remove a proposed coffee dock at the platform and should install toilets. The initial reaction of council planners to the proposal dismayed the DAA, which operates Dublin Airport and Cork Airport.
The DAA and Fingal County Council have been at loggerheads over a number of planning issues at Dublin Airport.
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 9th May 2025
This week, An Bord Pleanála approved plans by the DAA to expand the US Customs Pre-Clearance and Border Protection facility at Dublin Airport. In 2023, Fingal County Council had refused permission for the plan.
The observation platform that the DAA intends to build beside Dublin Airport is at a location just outside its perimeter, at an area known locally as “The Mound”. The site is owed by the DAA.
Aviation enthusiasts have used the location at Collinstown for decades, usually watching from their cars as aircraft land and take off nearby.
“The facility will provide a comfortable and safe space on an elevated platform for the community to view aircraft movements,” the DAA told the council.
Plane-spotters on ‘The Mound’ next to Dublin Airport. Photo: Maxwells
In its planning submission, the DAA said the platform will offer a clear view of the airport’s south runway, 10R/28L, as well as the cross-wind runway, 16/34, “whilst providing facilities such as shelter, seating, parking and lighting”.
Following a pre-planning meeting, the council told the DAA to remove a planned coffee dock at the viewing platform.
Despite there never being any facilities for the near 40 years that the viewing area has been informally used, the council insisted that electric vehicle charging points also be installed by the DAA if the viewing platform goes ahead.
Fingal’s planning department has raised a number of other concerns and described the absence of toilets as “disappointing” and “contrary to the ethos of universal design and quality placemaking”.
Additional information now provided by the DAA includes an agreement to relocate on-site bicycle parking facilities and responses to a number of issues raised by the local authority.
“This location has been an informal ‘plane-spotting’ area over the past 40 years and we think it’s time to put a more formal facility in place,” said Dublin Airport managing director Gary McLean.
“This new facility would make it safer and more enjoyable for users and we think it’s a facility that the local community will really enjoy,” he added.
One local residents’ group, which is battling the DAA in relation to issues at Dublin Airport such as aircraft noise, has objected to the plans, however.
St Margaret’s The Ward Residents group has insisted that the DAA should use Dublin Airport zoned lands for the project. It claims that the existing layby that’s used by enthusiasts has no zoning designation within Fingal County Council. This week, the group said that Dublin Airport should seek planning retention as it will breach its 32 million annual passenger cap this year, having also done so last year.
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