An Bord Pleanála has given approval for the controversial Monkstown Ring Road in south Co Dublin.
The €15 million road connecting the Stillorgan Park/Carysfort Avenue junction with Deansgrange Road via Newtown Park, will require the demolition of Yankee Terrace, a row of 11 late 19th-century cottages, and five properties on Newtownpark Avenue and Annaville Terrace.
The board approved the road with 13 conditions, none of them representing major design changes.
It found the road would cater for the transportation requirements of the county; promote and strengthen Dún Laoghaire and Stillorgan; attract traffic from less suitable roads and make Newtown Park village more accessible.
News of the permission for the road was greeted with disappointment by politicians and local residents yesterday. Barry Troy of the Rowanbryn and Brookvale Residents Association said all options including the possibility of a judicial review would now be considered.
Mr Troy said his initial reaction was one of "great disappointment" as the hearing had extensively considered a number of issues such as traffic volumes, noise the use of the route by heavy goods vehicles and demolition. He said the final permission represented an emphatic decision which bore little resemblance to the issues raised at the week-long hearing in Dublin's Gresham Hotel.
Another opponent of the scheme, Brian Guckian, who said the council had failed to examine alternatives to the ring road. The council had defined alternatives as meaning only alternative routes for the proposed road, rather than evaluating broader alternative ways of dealing with the transportation issues, he insisted.
The use of questionable traffic forecasts and emissions "pointed to judicial review as the only acceptable way forward", he said.
Green Party environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said: "Adding more road space and increasing traffic on residential streets is an outdated approach to traffic problems. This road will lead to an increase in traffic, noise and pollution.
"While some areas will benefit," Mr Cuffe added, "the construction of a new road will inevitably lead to more people travelling by car thus cancelling out the benefits of the scheme."
According to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the scheme would provide better access between Dún Laoghaire and Stillorgan.
