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STAR WARS AND SUPER SPIES: IS COLD WAR II HEATING UP? JUSTIN FEDOULOFF, FEATURES P11
JAMIE BURKE, WORLD REVIEW P16
www.trinitynews.ie
Michaelmas term, Week 10
Student Centre moves closer; issues remain
Issue 4, Volume 54
Plans abound but funding still absent
Halls future doubtful High Court planning appeal reinstated
Funding problems and disagreements over managements structures yet to be resolved
CAOIMHE HANLEY COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR
DEIRDRE ROBERTSON STAFF WRITER Plans to turn Luce Hall into the new student centre have taken a step closer to completion with the decision to proceed to architect’s drawings and a planning application. However, according to members of the Luce Hall Planning Committee, it is as yet undecided what exactly will be included in the building. Meanwhile, funding for the project is still in doubt, with the €250000 needed for the planning and design process being taken from the Nurse’s Education Capital Grant. In summer 2006, the Luce Committee requested funding from the Capitation Committee - which funds the Trinity Publications and Students’ Union, amongst others - but they were denied. According to Students’ Union President Andrew Byrne, 66% of the cost of this project will fall on students while College will contribute the remaining 33%. These figures will also determine the allocation of space in the building. It has been suggested that the
funds will be raised by two levies. One will pay for the building and the second for upkeep. This is similar to the €70 levy that was introduced in October to pay for the new Sports Hall. The Trinity Association have also been approached by the Luce Committee with requests to make raising money for the new centre a high priority. However, it is seen as unlikely that any one major donor will be found. In the case of the Sports Hall, a large donation was secured from business man Dr Martin Naughton. The management of the proposed Centre is still seen as the “major stumbling block”. The College’s Strategic Plan states building will be student-managed however individual areas may vary from this. The Students’ Union President Andrew Byrne has pointed out the proposed café as one exception. This will be run by College Catering. Another area of contention is the proposed bar and venue. The Students’ Union has expressed as strong interest in running this,
Left: Original plans for the conversion of Luce Hall dating from 2001. Above: Students’ Union President Andrew Byrne and Dean of Students Prof Gerry Whyte both of whom will be central to the progression of the Student Centre project. Photos: Mark Carroll, Martin McKenna, Michael Ronson
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No extra security for College Park despite “serious risk of injury” to students Crowd control issues last summer have highlighted shortcomings of current system STAFF WRITER College’s Executive Officers have decided not to appoint additional security staff to monitor the Pavilion Bar and College Park, despite recommendations to do so by the Sites and Facilities Committee last June ,which express a “real risk of a serious incident in College Park with adverse publicity and insurance implications.” Instead of following the recommendations of the SFC to hire extra security, a “risk assessment” has instead been taken, compiled in consultation with the Pavilion Management, the Department of Sport, College Security Managers, Junior Dean and the College Safety Officer. This summer, instead of extra security present at all times, there will be “resources made available to facilitate the introduction of a combination of
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control measures which include the employment of additional safety/security stewards to work at the Pavilion and the use of professional, external event managers on specific evenings when large crowds are anticipated”, a college source has said. The peak times in question are the early summer months of May and June, and around exam times, when the lawns of College Park are used as an overspill area for the Pavilion Bar, as well as a general outdoor recreational area. The SFC recommended that preventative steps be taken for student security by appointing additional part-time security staff. The SFC recommendations came amid a series of crowd control issues last May and June which led to the construction of iron railings along the pathways to the Pav, movement restrictions on campus and early and varied bar and grounds closing times. It was hoped that the introduction of
additional security staff would allay the need for such ad-hoc measures in the future. During the SFC meeting of 5 June 2007 a memorandum issued by the Facilities Officer Noel McCann was circulated to those present. In this memorandum McCann expressed concerns about “the issue of crowd control in College Park”. The minutes from this meeting state that “the committee noted the real risk of a serious incident in College Park with adverse publicity and insurance implications”. The committee went on “to recommend to Executive Officers the allocation of funds amounting to €45000 for the proposed additional part-time security staff required at peak times in College Park”. It was, however, noted by the SFC Bursar, Prof. D. C. Williams, that “Executive Officers • Continued page 5
Crowd control issues lead to request for extra security provisions. Photo: David Molloy
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Kevin Brazil discovers Dublin’s food revolution • Paul Earlie reviews Martin Amis The art of pornography examined • Catriona Gray meets the Stereophonics 6
Caira Bar rett on the art of por nography
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Kevin Bra zil examin Dublin’s food revo es lution
Cover Ilustration of Paul Piebinga courtesy
JOHN CALLAGHAN
A decision taken by Mr. Justice Fennelly of the Supreme Court to allow Mr. James Kelly to reinstate his appeal to the High Court against The Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the University of Dublin, Trinity College and Dublin City Council on 15 October may affect the future of Trinity Halls in Dartry. Kelly has been engaged for a number of years in legal proceedings seeking, entirely without success, to have declared invalid a decision of An Bórd Pleanála granting planning permission to Trinity for the development of the student residences at Trinity Hall. While the development has long since been completed, Kelly has been embroiled in legal dispute for the past seven years. On 7 November 2002, Kelly instituted the present action by plenary summons in the High Court. In this action he seeks an order directing the rehearing of his judicial review application. Effectively the relief he seeks in the action is an order setting aside the order of Justice McKechnie, who refused Kelly leave to appeal the awardance of planning permission for the Trinity Halls development. In the plenary summons, Kelly pleads that Justice McKechnie, in refusing the application for leave, had referred to the location of boilerhouse facilities proposed by the developers. He alleges that college had misled the High Court during the hearing of the leave application. The misleading is alleged to have consisted of the fact that the developers had submitted “certain architectural plans and drawings” relating to the development showing that boilers would be installed in certain places identified as plant rooms. However, Kelly claims that the college failed to acquaint the High Court with the full facts of an application, as it had also made for “the location of some of the aforesaid boilers in the basement of one of the aforesaid buildings to another section of the then Dublin Corporation namely the Fire Prevention Section.” The entire substance of the case pleaded by Kelly is that the order of Justice McKechnie, refusing him leave to apply for judicial review of the decision of An Bórd Pleanála granting planning permission, should be set aside because it was procured by the single act of alleged misleading mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Justice Murray, sitting in the