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14th March 2017 • Volume 24, Issue 08 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. K67 P5W4. • Tel: 01 8•400•200 • info@northcountyleader.ie • www.northcountyleader.ie
Donabate By-Pass Crucial For Development A number of developers have been temporarily prevented from constructing new housing schemes for Donabate due to reported concerns from residents’. The local area plan for Donabate anticipates the construction of 4,000 homes.
By Patrick Finnegan However, locals are concerned that the area will be overwhelmed by the level of planning applications. The fact that the terminus for Metro North had originally been considered for location close to the Donabate Roundabout, has now been re-routed to a location nearer to Swords, with the park and ride facility to be located close to Ballymun. Many believe that this is due to the lack of infrastructure in Donabate, eliminating it from consideration. Roger Lambe, who is treasurer of Donabate Community Council, told the County Leader, “Getting in and out of the village at certain times of the day is a nightmare. The infrastructure just isn’t there. It can take 20 minutes to leave the village at 9am on a Friday morning; such is the volume of traffic.” “You cannot put more houses in a place that you cannot get out of. The solution to the problem is to build the promised by-pass and then think about building the 4,000 houses. The County Council have to show their bona fides, because they built a whole raft of houses in the village, without doing anything for the area. They even located the Central Mental Hospital here, which will push even more traffic through the area. They must build the by-pass before they consider any further developments. The area around SuperValu in the centre of the village is an accident waiting to happen and I feel the Council are not including this in their traffic plans,” he said.
In recent weeks, the County Council have put on hold plans for 286 homes close to Beaverstown Golf Club, while they also placed on hold plans to construct 36 homes off Beaverstown Road, as well as for a mixed-use development at Turvey Avenue that included 33 apartments. New plans have recently been lodged by McGarrell Reilly Homes for the construction of 196 houses and 62 apartments on lands off the Hearse Road, Donabate. A County Council spokesperson confirmed, “The planning applications referred to are in the planning process at present and details of the individual applications are available at the Council offices and on fingal.ie. A development may only proceed when a final grant of planning permission is granted. Third party submissions are a valid part of the statutory planning process and form part of the planning consideration/assessment,” the statement concluded. Local councillor, Adrian Henchy (FF) did not envisage any such problems when he told the County Leader, “It will take many development plans to deliver that amount of housing units. The key to all of this is the full delivery of the by-pass road which will open up the lands at Ballymastone and Corballis, which will be of immense benefit to the new Central Mental Hospital at Portrane.” Getting straight to the nub of the problem, Henchy insisted, “This by-pass is a critical piece of infrastructure for new houses in that strip of land. Everyone knows that with its current infrastructure, Donabate is near capacity and that the only place where new houses can be constructed is along the Donabate/Portrane by-pass, which will allow for further development into the future.”
Pictured at the Holy Family National School, River Valley Annual Spring Day Cake sale and fundraiser organised by the Parents Association, are pupils, Emily Brennan, Lilly Gregan, Erin Ryan and Aoibhín McManus
“The total number of 4,000 houses relates to the final amount of houses to be built when everything is in place, including the by-pass road and this is what the County Development Plan allows for. That infrastructure is going to take time, perhaps years, so when the by-pass is built, it will open up the future lands. Previous developments were concentrated off Turvey Avenue and off the Beaverstown Road. Future developments will be off the by-pass road, leading from Kilcrea, across Corballis, with a new railway crossing. It then crosses the Strand housing estate and across Ballymastone and on to the Portrane Road,” he said. “Over the next number of years, there will be a few hundred houses built. When the Donabate by-pass road is built, this opens up the land for further development, which can accommodate up to 4,000 houses, but that is years away,” he stressed. Henchy feels that there is reasonable development in the area at present, like Carrs Mills, Beverton etc. McGarrell Reilly has an application in at present and eventually that will be built. I think the applications must meet the needs of the community. I think we are going about it in the right way,” he said. Henchy feels that roads and footpaths in the area need to be updated first and foremost. My understanding from speaking to school principals, is that the current
schools in the community are not enormously oversubscribed. We have plans for further schools provision on the lands at Ballymastone and these sites have been earmarked. There are plans to upgrade facilities and infrastructure in line with the planned 4,000 houses, with a new sports campus at Ballymastone, a new nature reserve at Corballis and a plan to create a new access road into the boys and girls schools on the Portrane Road. The secondary school is not at full capacity either,” he said.
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Plans To Close Airport Tourist Office ‘Nonsensical’ Local Fianna Fáil TD and the party’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Darragh O’Brien, has described Fáilte Ireland’s plans to close the only remaining tourist information office in Dublin airport as senseless. Fáilte Ireland is the National Tourism Development Authority, whose role is to support the tourism industry and work to sustain Ireland as a high-quality and competitive tourism destination. Commenting on the question he put to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport last week, O’Brien said, “In order to remain competitive in the global tourism market, Ireland must ensure that the quality of our services remains high, prices remain reasonable and that access to non-bias information which publicises the wide variety of regions and attractions across the country is available,” he said.
“Closing the only information office for tourists to approach at our country’s largest airport makes little sense when if anything, we should be increasing our efforts to attract and accommodate more tourists.” “While the tourism experience offered in Ireland is unrivalled, we cannot afford to neglect the overall quality of the tourism offering in the country.” “Dublin Airport continues to experience strong growth in volumes, with the latest observation breaking the previous record, welcoming more than 25 million people. Dublin
Airport is currently the fastest opment and domestic and overgrowing major airport in seas marketing. In Budget 2017, Europe with 1.8m recorded the capital budget for tourism passengers last month alone,” was cut by 4 per cent. This is he added. incredible given the grave risks “The Department, the tourism faced by the tourism sector, as agencies and local authorities a result of Brexit and sterling do have a key role in devising devaluation.” tourism promotion strategies O’Brien TD “Brexit poses a real threat to and policies. For all these further stable growth in the bodies, we cannot get carried away tourism industry, which the governwith the success we have had in ment and Minister Ross in particular, attracting tourists over the last appear unaware of. number of years and we must not rest ”I am disappointed that the Minister on our laurels. Facilitating the only has refused to intervene but I have tourist office in the airport to close is taken up this matter directly with Fáilte nonsensical,” he added. Ireland by asking them to reconsider “Since The Gathering, the government their decision in a bid to ensure the has neglected tourism product develoffice is kept open,” he concluded.
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