Council gives chef €35k to leave his flat

By Ray Managh

Award-winning chef and restaurateur Roddy Hickson is to be given €35,000 compensation by Dublin City Council to leave his Temple Bar council flat.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane yesterday gave the local authority orders for possession of 17 Crampton Buildings, Asdill's Row, Dublin 2 against Ormond Rhodes Hickson, his wife Maureen Hickson and son, Julian Hickson.

The judge said in the Circuit Civil Court that while the council was entitled to possession following service of a valid notice to quit on the Hickson family for renovation purposes, the tenant alone, Ormond Rhodes Hickson, was entitled under law to compensation which she measured at €35,000.

authority

Barrister Luan O Braonain, who appeared with Paul Coughlan for the local authority, said Mr Hickson was one of 54 tenants in the 100-year-old Crampton Buildings complex which the council wished to re-develop into 28 two-bedroom apartments for social housing purposes.

Mr O Braonain said the council had gained possession of the other 53 flats in the complex and intended next month to begin a €4m scheme of refurbishment. Contracts had been signed and contractors put in readiness to begin work on August 8 next.

Frank Lambe, senior executive officer with the council, said the new apartments would be returned to those former tenants who had been temporarily re-housed elsewhere and who wished to return to Crampton Buildings which was just across the road from the Old Dubliner Pub in Temple Bar. Any spare apartments would be made available to those on the council's housing list.

He said Mr Hickson was not entitled to social housing as he owned two properties, including Papa Rhodes Restaurant and a two-bed apartment in Gorey, Co Wexford, and a property in the United States.

Mr Hickson claimed his original lease to his apartment had been acquired on the open market in 1988, ten years before the council had acquired Crampton Buildings.

ORDER

Judge Linnane, granting the council a possession order, said Mr Hickson had claimed compensation of €572,825 for the purpose of purchasing a replacement two-bedroom apartment, preferably close to a Luas 
stop.

She said he was not entitled to a new tenancy and awarded him compensation of €30,000 with a further €5,000 to cover the cost of general disturbance and removal expenses.

Mr Hickson, when told the Council would not seek its legal costs should there be no appeal, said: "That's the end of the matter. It will not go any further."

hnews@herald.ie