Its been a busy year since last years Local Elections on June 11th
With local planning and development plans & rezonings coupled with residents campaigns against living next door to phone masts we have been busy. The busiest period was December when things are usually quite, one Wednesday night we had 2 back to back public meetings on 2 unlinked issues, followed on Thursday night with pub quiz.
DISMANTLING THE PHONE GIANTS
As the country suffers the duplicated role out of extra 3rd generation networks from 3 competing phone companies we have been busy over the past 12 months with the issue of new masts.
From as early as March 2004 we met in the Marine Hotel Sutton with regard to the planning permission being sought opposite the primary school on Carrickbrack Road for a 3G mast. We have been following this through the planning process where it was refused permission, however it is currently being appealed to an Bord Pleanala where we have made a full observation.
In February we were in contact with residents of Binn Eadair who woke up to a second and new mobile phone mast to the rear of their homes. The previous summer the planning notice was unnoticed and slipped through to the great annoyance of local residents. ESB networks and Hutchison 3G (H3G) installed the new tower days before Christmas in 2004.
In Baldoyle the ongoing saga on the Brookstone Road continues. Having campaigned for six months local residents won a planning reversal with the installation on the football club being deemed an unauthorized development and an enforcement notice was issued against H3G. The status of this site is still being disputed by the club and phone company with the planners. H3G have appealed the decision to an Bord Pleanala. Baldoyle Against Radiation has made a full referral to the Bord having brought the section 5 referral that forced the council to decided against the installation at this sensitive site just 2 meters from the local boys national school.
With all the above campaigns, it is clear that the planning process is tilted in favour of the large multi national phone companies. Only where communities get organised and fight will any short term gains be won. Long term wins for communities will be won with the dismantling of the system that allows phone giants profit at the expense of our next generation, the children of our area.
PLANNING FOR THE PEOPLE
As the Fingal County Development Plan 2005?2011 has just completed, the Howth Ward has remained mainly unchanged, due to the constant pressure of your local Socialist Party team.
Seagrange Park
Residents won a major victory in stopping the council and developers plans to re zone the South end of Seagrange Park. Working with the residents associations in Parkvale Meadowbrooke Tuscacy Park & Sutton Park we drew up our own area action plan for the land in question. We sought the support of 18 local sporting and community groups and presented our plan to Councillors and Council in the first week of January 2005.
On January 18th a previous decision to re zone the land know locally as Brickfields was reversed when it became clear that the council did not have the support of councillors to extend the rezoning site Northward to include the Council depot land.
The ball is if the Councils court to use a sporting metaphor, the community wants the development of amenity uses for the lands to enhance the Seagrange Park area.
The Socialist Party was the only group on the council to motion against the rezoning at the first occasion. The lack of support of the Labour Party lost the vote the first time round and left the land in danger of being rezoned forever.
Sutton / Bayside / Seagreange Park Cycle paths
Controversial cycle paths for the inner roads of the Verbena, Bayside and Sutton Park estates have been removed following public pressure, which flowed from an public meeting we held in August 2004. The Cycle path in Seagrange was also rerouted away from dissecting two football pitches used for soccer & GAA games.
Edros Howth, SITE STILL UNRESOLVED
Now that the Fingal County Development 2005-2011 has been completed the status of the EDROS site’s zoning has been left unchanged, However the County manager has made it quite clear that this matter will be resolved in a matter of months and that they want to rezone the site for development including apartments. The site for the moment remains open space.
It is at the juncture that community involvement and pressure is most apt. The councillors have resolved to amend the new development plan by way of material contravention rather than a variation which means the decision will be taken by councillors without going through the public display process.
The outcome of this process must reflect what the community wants and not the pursuit of profiteering land speculators, which means, a multi functional community building for Howth and the preservation of Howth Village must be addressed urgently. The community must be vigilant.
Bayside Square
Developers are currently appealing to an Bord Pleanala the proposed 5 storey redevelopment of the Square. Our motion to remove urban renewal designation from this site succeeded with the global removal of these designations in the entire plan. FCC have refused permission for the redevelopment in its current form. Planners and developers should take note that the permission of the community can be much more
important than any other from of permission. Redevelopment of the centre is overdue, but only with local community support will the development be a success.
Council target Basketball & Tennis courts
Fingal Parks division are attempting to re-deploy part of the Basketball courts at Bayside DART station for soccer training. They are also trying to reduce the number of tennis courts in use by Trackside Tennis Club with a view to adding more hard surfaces for ball games. Adding to the problem the council have yet to reinstall the Basketball courts to the North end of Seagrange park off the Grange Road, and one court at the DART station is still out of use due to the North Fringe Watermain Works which are running behind schedule.
It is clear that the Council are attempting to make alterations to existing facilities in favour of certain interest groups without full consultation with all sporting bodies in the area. While there is an urgent requirement for playing pitches in the area, as most greenfield sites have been developed on, targeting existing services is not the solution.