Politicians push for Drogheda development planning prob

[Paul Clerkin]

Politicians push for Drogheda development planning probe

The former environment minister Dick Roche and a local politician have called for an inquiry into recent planning decisions in Co Meath, after a Dublin developer threatened to take a multi-million euro High Court case against Meath County Council.

Dick Roche, Minister of State, confirmed he had written to environment minister John Gormley last week calling for a formal investigation.

Serious allegations regarding the way in which the planning authority has operated were made to Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Roche, who has expressed deep concern.

The allegations were made after the recent publication of the South Drogheda Environs Local Area Plan.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqs=news-qqqid=35569-qqqx=1.asp

[missarchi]

there are huge sums of money at stake here and years and years of work...
I wouldn't call the whole show high density

[Denton]

Most of what they've done in drogheda in the last four years is a joke.

The Scotch hall is loosing money, the lawrence centre is incomplet and spread over several uninteligable levels and the "pedestrianisation" of west street was an obvious ploy to destroy all the business's and cause utter chaos.


Its just disgraceful what has happened to this town. Like they havent learned from the past, there's dozens of failed shopping centres within the town and yet they keep cramming them in.


And the M1 is a joke too, the only free exit is the julians town exit, miles out of the way in meath.
To enter Louth you basically get off the motorway the second you hit meath and then drive into drogheda, madness.

[johnglas]

From a (very) casual reading of the newspaper article, this looks like a serious case of 'caveat emptor' at worst. What is the developer's case? That he spent eu140m after 'speaking' to someone on the council? Has he never heard of due diligence? A strategy document is just that, it's not an approved local plan. The old 'let's buy the town centre stadium and we'll build you a new one in the country if we can also build 10,000 houses' is surely a bit played-out now.
My one visdit to Drogheda convinced me that it is a pleasant if dull provincial town that hasn't quite realised it's suddenly grown much bigger. I don't recognise your hell-hole, denton, and since when has pedestrianisation (as opposed to out-of-town centres) 'destroyed' business?

[jdivision]

johnglas, this:
Serious allegations regarding the way in which the planning authority has operated were made to Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Roche, who has expressed deep concern.

The allegations were made after the recent publication of the South Drogheda Environs Local Area Plan
is usually journalistic shorthand for there's a lot more going on here but legally we can't say it.

[johnglas]

Point taken; thanks.

[Denton]

From a (very) casual reading of the newspaper article, this looks like a serious case of 'caveat emptor' at worst. What is the developer's case? That he spent eu140m after 'speaking' to someone on the council? Has he never heard of due diligence? A strategy document is just that, it's not an approved local plan. The old 'let's buy the town centre stadium and we'll build you a new one in the country if we can also build 10,000 houses' is surely a bit played-out now.
My one visdit to Drogheda convinced me that it is a pleasant if dull provincial town that hasn't quite realised it's suddenly grown much bigger. I don't recognise your hell-hole, denton, and since when has pedestrianisation (as opposed to out-of-town centres) 'destroyed' business?

IT was the construction that killed business. They ripped up the street in sections over a period of a year and half when it was only supposed to take a few months. They delibertly left gapping holes in the street and snaking traffic that was allways busy backed up and redirected.

Im not an expert but ive heard a lot of horror storeys about it and at least 2 or 3 stores were forced to close. The 2 supermarkets have also massively down graded their staff as a result.


What the town has now is no better. Sure the footh paths are all level but you can nearly see how the town has changed. With all the new larger shops and retail parks on either side of the river people are staying out of the very very busy town centre. The 2 new shopping centre's and the revamped main street are suffering.

No one really know what they're doing with this town. Its a hachet job of development. And everything that has moved out, including the long standing Sound shop, havent been replaced by anything. A lot of buildings are empty.