Welcome to Ireland’s ugly urban sprawl
- This topic has 159 replies, 44 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 9 months ago by
.
- Posts
Unless you propose building over the public parks, which are not the same as green belts, I really don’t see where this space you are talking about is.
drive to Blancherdstown.
http://forum.platform11.org/showthread.php?p=1103#post1103
05/01/2006 – 5:18:50 PM
Councillor wants ‘special understanding’ for rural drink-drivers
A Co Clare councillor has said rural dwellers should be excused from drink-driving.
Fianna Fáil Councillor Flan Garvey said people who visit pubs as their only social outlet are familiar with local roads and drive more carefully and slowly, especially when they have had a few drinks.
The elected local authority member has appealed for a “special understanding” to be shown.
He insists he does not condone drink-driving, but wants allowances made for certain people, such as those who live alone, and who would travel just a few miles to the pub once or twice a week.
Does he have a valid point?
@asdasd wrote:
drive to Blancherdstown.
I do regularly. Where’s the green belt. On the left-hand side of the N3 is the Phoenix Park racecourse, which is as we speak being completely covered in apartments.
On the right-hand side, there is a narrow strip of land between the road and the canal/railway. Apart from a couple of already existing developments, it is to be home to a new overbridge road interchange, a new railway station and a park and ride facility.
The River Road, that is the back road between Blanchardstown and Finglas, is the site for Pelletstown and Rathborne already with more developments to come.Regarding Councillor Garvey’s amazing point above, if incitement to riot is a crime, so too should incitement to self-destruction and stupidity. What sort of moron would come out with a comment that people who know the local back roads should enjoy greater leniency when drunk. Should we first measure their ‘knowledge’ of the local road network? Surely then bus drivers who drive the same route everyday should be allowed to inject heroin when pulled over to pick up the school kids. Christ, the country is populated by grade A gobshites.
@Pepsi wrote:
I once heard that if Dublin keeps growing at the rate it has been, by 2010 it will be bigger than Los Angeles. I wonder whether this is true or not?
Fortunately not as LA is the size of Belgium
@holton wrote:
Pepsi, you cannot compare Dublin to Los Angeles. L.A. is many times bigger than Dublin.
Mashadov, there’s plenty of “green belts” just a few miles from the centre of Dublin. This is where most housing should be built, rather than places like Mullingar etc. But because of the high cost of housing in Dublin, people are being forced out to these areas.
I was only saying what I heard. It was somone else who made this comparison a while back.
Holton, there certainly aren’t plenty of “green belts” left within a few miles from Dublin.
The Phoenix Park racecourse site, to give just one example, is quickly disappearing beneath one of the worst modern developments of recent times.
Unless you propose building over the public parks, which are not the same as green belts, I really don’t see where this space you are talking about is.Kefu
There is a huge amount of land particulary on the northern fringes of Dublin, which haven’t been built on. And these are all within a few miles of the city centre. Just look at the amount of “green belt” you see when you fly in and out of Dublin airport!
Council proposes ‘heritage payments’ for farmers From:ireland.com
Monday, 9th January, 2006The Heritage Council has announced of a series of proposals aimed at encouraging farmers to conserve Ireland’s archaeological history and provide greater protection for the countryside.
According to the council, changes in farming methods over recent decades have resulted in Ireland’s flora and fauna facing new dangers with an estimated 29 species of bird and 120 species of flowering plants currently in serious decline.
In addition to these figures, over 34% of the State’s archaeological monuments have been lost since 1840 with much of this happening on farms.
Under changes proposed today by the Heritage Council, the new Rural Environment Protection Scheme 4 (Reps4) would contain measures under which farmers would receive payments in exchange for managing and protecting Ireland’s heritage, environment and landscape.
Reps is an income support scheme for farmers run by the Department of Agriculture. It provides a basic payment to participants and under the Heritage Council’s proposals, additional payments would be made to farmers who take measurable actions to protect habitats and archaeological sites on their lands.
Mr Michael Starrett, Chief Executive of the Heritage Council, said farmers and landowners who protect Ireland’s heritage perform “a unique public service that benefits everyone in Ireland.”
There is a great opportunity for farmers and landowners to play a more significant role in managing our national heritage and this would lead to many benefits for the wider community and could help provide new recreational and tourism enterprises,” he added.
The Council’s proposals have been submitted to Government for consideration.
Any Thoughts?
Some of our Regional Towns such as Dundalk have developed with a Ring Road First Approach.
This has lead to a more ideal town centre and people actually can walk around and enjoy shopping
and of course the pubsHolton, I suppose the issue is whether you consider the eight miles to Dublin Airport a “few miles” or not.
And even still, you would be amazed at how much of this Northern Fringe land you are talking of is currently zoned for housing.
Anything further out than Dublin Airport is only contributing to the sprawl as far as I’m concerrned, particularly when it is not near a rail line, ie most everywhere.
I don’t mean to be pedantic but in terms of a “few miles” from Dublin City, ie three or four – there is very little green space bar the public parks.Kefu
Dublin has a population of over 1 million people so you wouldn’t expect to see much empty green spaces within 3 or 4 miles of the city centre. I’m aware that some of this Northern Fringe is zoned for housing, but it will probably take another 10 years before it’s all built on.
Once you go north of Baldoyle, you hit open countryside either side of the rail line. Better to build here than some far off commuter town in my opinion.
And Dublin airport is only about 6.5 miles from the city centre!!!
If Dublin has a built-up area with a radius in the region of 8-10 miles maximum stretching out on three sides, can this really be called ‘sprawl’? Is this an exaggeration? Even taking the satelite towns of Maynooth, Celbridge, Swords etc into account, it is still a very small portion of Leinster. It certainly still has a very low population density in comparison to the regions surrounding other European capital cities.
@Heritage Council wrote:
A New Road to Travel or
Landscape, Bloody Landscape
PART ONE: Thinking about it
This is not about motorways. 2,4,6,8 or any other variety.This is not a rebel song – it is about landscape, bloody landscape.
This is about something so blindingly obvious that I really have to ask the question why it hasn’t happened already. Ireland needs a Landscape (Ireland) Act. Not an Act to stifle development, not an Act to fossilise our environment but an Act which focuses directly on what is Ireland’s most important asset i.e. where all of us live, work and play and which contains all our natural and cultural resources i.e. OUR LANDSCAPE. Why we don’t have such legislation already is hard to comprehend. Providing it would be good for everyone who lives on or visits this Island.
The signposts have been pointing us in this legislative direction for a long time. As far as the future well being of our landscape is concerned we are now most definitely at a major cross-roads and have to make a major choice. Experience dictates that the choice should be the route marked LEGISLATION and that if we take it everyone will benefit.
Why? Because it would give us a focus and structure in which we can work to resolve all those current issues which today seem to make such graphic headlines. These include loss of farm incomes, decline in rural tourism, decline in quality of life and many others too numerous to mention.
Why? Because it will bring us in to line with every other European Country and it will allow us to live up to the commitments we undertook when Ireland ratified the European Landscape Convention.
PART TWO: Realising it
Recent articles in the media have highlighted the concerns about our landscape. You really must have had your head in a fertiliser bag if you are not aware of the coverage on our agricultural landscape. The decline in farmers, the decline in farm incomes, the age profile, the nitrate directive, the Common Agricultural Policy, the World Trade Talks have all loomed and doomed large. Similarly the urbanisation of our tourism industry and the impact on rural economies, the loss of the traditional bed and breakfast accommodation, difficulties of access to the hills, and a lack of provision for countryside recreation have all been cited as contributory factors in our difficulties of keeping rural economies diverse, healthy and dynamic. In short a healthy and dynamic rural economy equates to a diverse, healthy and dynamic landscape.That bag over your head would need to be particularly thick to have you unaware of the impact of new infra-structure on our landscape (Tara), to say nothing of the debate on rural housing (everywhere), village design and heaven forbid sustainable development.
Well let’s face it, landscape is very relevant to our everyday lives. We all live, work and play in a landscape. Surely something so significant deserves to be looked after in the best way possible and be the subject of a particular focus. Our democracies work through legislation, and legislation is what our leaders use to focus, to provide finance and structures to make the democracy work. It all sounds so simple.
PART THREE: Doing it
If I look at the last 10 years the case for new legislation for our landscapes has been carefully constructed to a point where the blindingly obvious decision now needs to be taken. This is not to criticise any existing systems or legislative provisions, such as our Planning Acts. Heaven forbid. They are for different purposes. It is just to say that if we are to resolve current issues new approaches and new legislation are needed.
The work of the Heritage Council whether on]
Any Thoughts?
Thomondpark,
Any thoughts?
Well yes actually.
Firstly it’s great to be reminded that there are many people out there, in senior positions, who are still idealistic and engaged.
Secondly – and something I discovered many years ago – if ‘we’ wish to preserve something which ‘we’ consider to be of aesthetic value (or any other value which is not immediately obvious to the majority of people) then we need to be prepared to buy that thing or else make adequate compensation available to the owner of the thing – who may not share our enthusiasm for its preservation.
This will never happen in this country – for lots of reasons – nor will we even resource areas such as heritage officers within planning authorities. Certainly we will write the plans – we have some of the best – the NSS is a smasher – but seriously – you didn’t think we meant it??
We can only muddle on and hope that the core of committed planners will not give up.
The National Spatical Strategy must surely be dead in the water by now thanks to the builder led Fianna F
@Thomond Park wrote:
Councillor wants ‘special understanding’ for rural drink-drivers
A Co Clare councillor has said rural dwellers should be excused from drink-driving.
Fianna Fáil Councillor Flan Garvey said people who visit pubs as their only social outlet are familiar with local roads and drive more carefully and slowly, especially when they have had a few drinks.
It appears that Councillor Garvey is out of step with his constituents
Call for anti drink-drive message in pubs
30 January 2006 13:07
The Macra Na Feirme organisation in Co Clare is calling for the introduction of a ‘don’t drink and drive’ message to be printed on drinking glasses in pubs.Group Chairman Joe Carrig is asking brewery companies to become more proactive in their response to drink driving.
He said Macra represents young people from all walks of life that live in rural areas and are dependent on cars.
Advertisement
Young people are not immune to the relentless advertising by drinks’ manufacturers, he added.
‘Couple the vibrant youth of our membership with the pressure to consume alcohol and a car dependence because of a lack of rural transport and we are a vulnerable group,’ he added.
Commuter belts expand
From The Irish IndependentFriday, 27th April, 2007
POPULATION growth has shot through the roof in the ever-widening commuter belts of Ireland’s biggest cities.New Census 2006 figures show that people are moving out of cities and into smaller towns.
And these are groaning under the pressure of seeing their numbers double or even treble in just a few years.
The five cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford have lost population share compared to the rest of the country.
No leadership
Listened to a conversation between two non-exercising young males recently. One of them admitted to the other, that he would consider doing some swimming as exercise, if they ever invented Ipods for under water.
I never realised the task of medical and health officials in this country is so difficult, when that is what you are up against. I was wondering does anyone have links to current stats? How fat has this country really become during the good times?
On another note, I notice for the first time in about fifteen years the ‘scare campaigns’ in student lavatories has changed from the usual ‘don’t pick up aids’ message, to ‘drinking is bad’ message. I don’t quite know how to respond to this except to say, I must be getting old, having outlived a whole ‘fatal illness’ ad campaign.
So what will really get us first? Global warming, AIDs, obesity or alcohol? For further reference, do check out writing like that of Naomi Klein and John Thackara, to understand the background to a lot of these health and well being campaigns.
Brian O’ Hanlon.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
