The High Court has refused Lissan Coal Company and LCC Properties and Investments permission to appeal part of a BusConnects judgment concerning their filling station on Old Cabra Road in Dublin 7.
The dispute concerns the Blanchardstown to City Centre Core Bus Corridor Scheme. Two proposed bus gates on Old Cabra Road would, the court previously found, deprive the filling station of almost all passing trade and make the business commercially unviable.
In a substantive judgment delivered on 30 April 2026, Mr Justice David Holland held that An Coimisiún Pleanála had relied on a materially incorrect assessment when approving the scheme in June 2024. The planning inspector had stated that the filling station could continue operating, although the evidence supported a conclusion that the loss of passing traffic would force it to close.
The court therefore decided to quash the scheme approval only insofar as it authorised the two Old Cabra Road bus gates and to remit that issue to the Commission for reconsideration. The separate compulsory purchase order was not quashed.
Lissan then sought certification to appeal a different issue: whether interference with a public right of way amounts to an acquisition of land under section 213 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and therefore requires authorisation through a compulsory purchase order.
Mr Justice Holland refused certification. He held that even if Lissan succeeded on that statutory interpretation issue, it would not change the outcome because the earlier judgment contained separate discretionary reasons for refusing relief on the same ground.
The judge also noted the strong public interest in avoiding unnecessary delay to major public transport infrastructure and held that, although the statutory interpretation point was novel, the law was not sufficiently uncertain to justify an exceptional appeal.
The proposed final order also records that the Commission failed to give adequate reasons for refusing Lissan an oral hearing and provides that it pay 70% of Lissan’s costs.