The GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR Committee Meeting Room | The Beach House | The Harbour | Greystones | Co Wicklow Email: gubohn@gmail.com Web: facebook.com/groups/greystones
Press release
16 May 2011
Banners up as Greystones group steps up ‘take down the hoardings’ campaign LARGE BANNERS were placed on the walls of several business premises in Greystones over the weekend as the GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR group steps up its campaign to have the harbour hoardings removed in time for the summer. This phase of the campaign involves mounting banners bearing the slogan “Give Us Back Our Harbour — Take Down the Hoardings” at various points in the harbour and around the town. Basil Miller, a local resident and spokesman for the group, explained that GUBOH represents a large group of residents and businesses in Greystones whose quality of life and level of business have been adversely affected by the unsightly hoardings. “The community’s quality of life has been drastically affected,” said Miller. “The appearance of the whole harbour area is ruined, hospitality businesses in the area have seen massive decline in their trade and this fall-‐off is felt throughout the town. “The approach to Greystones from the Bray Cliff Walk now has a prison-‐like appearance and the community has been cut off from the marine environment which has always been central to life in our town. “We accept that the hoardings have been necessary until now for safety reasons. However, they have been in place for three and a half years, which is a great deal longer that we were originally led to believe. Work on the site ceased about six months ago and there seems little likelihood of it recommencing in the near future. “Completion of this project is, we understand, dependent on an uplift in the housing market. Few informed commentators believe this will happen for quite a number of years. We sympathise with SISPAR’s financial difficulties but we do not believe it is acceptable for a developer to seal off a harbour and a portion of the coastline from the public for an indefinite period purely for commercial reasons.” Miller went on to stress that GUBOH is not opposing the completion of the Bord Pleanala-‐approved development.