Re: Re: The Park, Carrickmines
Hutton I completely agree with you.
Just on the behaviour of Fine Gael councillors, I really don’t hold any political allegiances but I’ve recently been noticing some really bad stuff going on.
Here is shocking stuff from one of the pro-Carrickmines zoners above, John Bailey (FG), and his daughter Maria Bailey (FG).
Donations had ‘no bearing’ on planning decision, says FG councillor
http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2010/jan/24/donations-had-no-bearing-on-planning-decision-says/John Bailey says planning objection ‘went missing’
Mark Hilliard
Janury 24, 2010
(Image added so you’ll know which faces not to vote for at next election!)A FINE Gael councillor said that thousands of euro in donations from two companies behind a controversial development had no bearing on his failure to object to its go-ahead.
John Bailey told voters he had objected to An Bord Pleanála over the controversial redevelopment of the old Dun Laoghaire Golf Club, but the appeals body later confirmed it had received no such correspondence.
It has since been revealed that Bailey, who sits on Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Council with his daughter Maria, received financial donations from both the developers in question and its estate agent ahead of his unsuccessful 2007 general election bid.
Bailey said he now accepted his objection had gone missing, but that when contacted by the Sunday Tribune, he re-sent the documents as an observation. The deadline has passed for objections. “These things can happen in the post but it’s most unusual,” he said.
Bailey also enclosed a new submission cheque but said his bank was still looking into whether or not the initial one to An Bord Pleanála had ever been cashed.
Cosgrave Developments and Hooke & McDonald, both of whom are behind the contentious development, gave Bailey donations of €2,500 each ahead of the general election.
However, he denied that this in any way compromised or affected his ability to object to the project.
“I am totally independent and totally impartial. I am there to represent people,” he said. “Everybody has to do fundraising for the elections. I have never shirked from whatever I have had to say. I am not bought or beholden to anybody.”
Bailey was unclear as to whether he had sought the donations directly or whether he had been approached by the companies.
“I can’t tell you off the top of my head but you do whatever you can during elections,” he said.
Bailey circulated leaflets to around 100 constituents, local to the golf course site, stating that he had filed the objection to An Bord Pleanála.
The objections would also have been also flawed in that Bailey made reference to two separate planning applications in the letter, which has been seen by the Sunday Tribune. Such a move is prohibited by An Bord Pleanála rules. “If I did that I made an error,” he previously conceded.
The plans for one of the two developments in question is still with the local authority and so an appeal to An Bord Pleanála was premature.
The development currently before the board relates to 605 residential units on the site off the Glenageary Road Upper and Eglinton Park, Dun Laoghaire. The application, still with the council, refers to a separate but related development at the old bowls club.
I have more examples but I don’t want to get too off topic.
Back to Carrickmines. I have been reading back through other articles over the past month about the rezoning. Here is one where Ciaran Cuffe gives some reasons why zoning Carrickmines is contrary to good planning.
Minister stresses importance of new town before vote on rezoning
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0412/1224268137650.html
FIONA GARTLAND
Monday, April 12, 2010PROPOSALS TO develop a new town at Cherrywood, south Dublin, are to be brought to Government within weeks, the Minister for Sustainable Transport and Planning has said.
Green Party Minister Ciarán Cuffe said the proposals would ensure proper facilities would be developed side by side with homes and businesses at Cherrywood, a 361-hectare site between the M50 and the N11.
He made his announcement before a controversial rezoning motion comes before Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council today to reduce retail zoning at Cherrywood and increase it at Carrickmines, also off the M50.
If the motion, tabled by six councillors, is passed, it will initiate a variation of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Development Plan. It will also countermand an order by Minister for the Environment John Gormley not to increase retail zoning at Carrickmines.
Mr Cuffe said yesterday that developer-led zonings were running the danger of undermining millions of euros in infrastructure investment and the creation of thousands of new jobs over the next decade.
He said the Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), the planning framework that will create the new town at Cherrywood, would provide the bedrock for sustainable economic development and job-creation. It would also allow for fast-tracked planning.
Mr Cuffe said the new town, when fully developed over 10 years, would provide 12,500 homes and 18,000 jobs.
“The proper infrastructure – including a new Luas line with five stops in Cherrywood which will open later this year – has been put in place. It has the potential to create a vibrant, dynamic new town in south Dublin.”
He was concerned the SDZ would be undermined by the Carrickmines motion, on which councillors will vote today.
“I have deep concerns that, because of the employment situation in Ireland at present, councillors and politicians are falling victim to the old claim of jobs being promised as long as a zoning takes place,” he said.
“Trading a zoning for a promise is not good planning and is consistent with past practices of light-touch regulation and pure and simple cronyism that got our country into its present difficulties.”
Councillors have also come under pressure from the developers of both Carrickmines and Cherrywood, who wrote to them on Friday.
The Carrickmines developer, Park Developments, has promised 800 jobs, a “guaranteed” anchor tenant as well as interest from other retailers should the motion be passed.
The Cherrywood developer, Dunloe Ewart, has threatened legal proceedings should the motion be passed. It said it has already spent €28.6 million on infrastructure in Cherrywood.
At this moment, all I can say is thank god we have a Green as Minister for Environment to stop these braindeads from destroying south county Dublin.
Just who are our councillors working in the interests of? I would like to see if any of the councillors listed by Hutton have received donations from Park Developments. As I pointed out, John Bailey has previous in that kind of thing.
