Planning permission for a 104-unit apartment complex in north Dublin has been quashed by the High Court because the proposed development did not include adequate playground facilities.An Coimisiún Pleanála had granted developer Rondesere Ltd permission for the 11-storey complex earmarked for a site at the junction of Grange Road and Longfield Road in Baldoyle, Dublin 13.In a judgment this week, Judge David Holland sided with a local residents’ association which had challenged the grant of planning permission. It was Abbey Park and District Residents Association’s case that the commission was wrong to grant permission for the development because it did not include adequate playground space. The residents pointed to the Fingal County Development Plan 2023-2029, which provides for the inclusion of playground facilities in residential developments exceeding 50 units.The proposed development did not comply with this provision of the development plan, but An Coimisiún Pleanála did not consider this, the residents argued. The proposed development did include a creche with a “play area”, but the judge noted that this space would not be accessible to children who are not customers of the creche. Even including the creche play area, the proposed size of the facility was almost 300m2 smaller than what is required under the development plan, the judge noted. Drawing on estimates of the number of children likely to live at the development, and assuming all children using the creche are residents of the development, about 90 children “will be deprived of the playground, which the development plan solemnly represented to them they would get”, the judge said. “The 35 children who will get a playground will pay for the privilege,” the judge added. The judge found that the proposed development was in contravention of the development plan, insofar as it did not provide adequate playground facilities. An Coimisiún Pleanála argued that because the residents did not raise issues over playground provision during the planning process, they could not raise it in the High Court. The residents said there was an onus on the commission to address the issue.The judge agreed with the residents: “The provision of children’s play facilities in new residential developments of apartments (which do not have gardens) is undoubtedly within the commission’s autonomous duty – to concern itself with the protection of the residential conditions and amenities of those, usually as yet unidentified or unidentifiable, who will live in the dwellings proposed.”The judge also rejected submissions by the commission pointing to other green areas and playgrounds “around and about” the development. The judge said he would quash the grant of planning permission. The case returns for final orders next month.