Aldi have lodged an appeal to An Bord Pleanála for their controversial supermarket development in Clonsilla Village for the second time.

Deputy Joan Burton TD local representative for Clonsilla Village has said that “Aldi is premature in their decision to appeal. They are not taking into account the fact that the Council are currently undertaking a Clonsilla Urban Centre Strategy Study.

The study is intended to reflect the needs of the Village and it residents over the coming years in terms of proper and forward looking planning. Deputy Burton continued that following the initial planning refusal by both Fingal and An Bord Pleanála that Aldi should have engaged with both the Council and the local residents to reach a consensus of a suitable development for the Village.

The Village of Clonsilla consists of mostly single and two story buildings. Aldi’s decision to add high rise, high density apartments to the Shopping area is a recipe for an unsustainable development. This type of development will be investor lead and mostly for renting, rather than owner occupation.

Too consciously add poorly designed apartments, beside this supermarket development is to seriously undermine the sustainability of the community in Clonsilla Village.

Already one of the features of Clonsilla is that many families who came to settle in the area hoping to stay have found that because of a lack of community facilities such as Schools, Community Centre and Parks. But also the growing predominance of investors who churn tenants regularly. Which will make the Clonsilla Village a more unattractive to live in, from a long term point of view.

Families will depart the area leaving investors to take over and so the cycle begins again. For the Bord, to assist this process by permitting poorly thought out flats beside a supermarket is planning at it worst.

The proposed supermarket complex will bring additional traffic to Clonsilla which already suffers from chronic traffic congestion as a result of through traffic to the Blanchardstown Town Centre and Lucan traffic accessing the N3/M3. The Aldi development has not taken into account traffic congestion in any shape or form and does not make any commercial sense as people will not drive by car to an area already suffering from traffic grid lock to do their shopping”.

Deputy Burton will consult with local residents and listen to their views after which the Dublin West TD will lodge an objection to the proposed Aldi development with An Bord Pleanala. Which she concludes “is a totally unsuitable development for Clonsilla Village”.

Fingal County Council have revealed to Labour’s Joan Burton that there are plans for a recycling centre to be opened in the Damastown Industrial Estate in mid June of this year as a temporary replacement for the Coolmine recycling centre which is being extended. This will allow the bottle bank by Mulhuddart cemetery to be removed temporarily to the new recycling centre and later to a permanent location in Tyrellstown.

This information was sent in reply to representations made by Joan Burton to the Council about the level of noise generated by the bottle bank which often interrupts funerals causing great upset for bereaved families.

Fingal County Council have plans for a permanent bottle bank to be located near Lidl in Tyrellstown. They have attached a condition to recent approval of planning permission for a new retail unit beside Lidl that grants permission only on the condition that a bottle bank is located there.

Fingal County Council have made a commitment that as soon as this new retail development takes place they will ensure that a bottle bank is put in place.

Joan Burton said “I am delighted by the news that the bottle bank beside the cemetery in Mulhuddart will be removed in June this year and replaced by a temporary facility in Damastown and later by a permanent facility in Tyrellstown.There is a huge shortage of bottle banks in the Dublin 15 area and they play a crucial role in waste management and recycling for the area but the unfortunate location of this bottle bank has been a serious cause of distress for grieving families.”

Fingal County Council Management should hang their heads in shame at permitting the widespread destruction of trees on the Navan Road at the Phoenix Park Racecourse site. Deputy Joan Burton said that she and many others were saddened by the recent destruction and clear felling of a very large amount of trees on both sides of the Navan Road fringing the old Phoenix Park Racecourse.

The ostensible reason for this destruction of trees is the construction of a new railway station for the Phoenix Park flats development at the racecourse. However this could have been done without the clear felling over a huge section of both sides of the road which had now taken place.

Deputy Burton said, “This was an attractive tree lined road which marked the entrance to Fingal and the break between Dublin City and Fingal County Council and Blanchardstown. It was specifically identified for protection and strengthening during all of the discussions on the Phoenix Park Racecourse development. Thousands of local residents objected to the Racecourse development and demanded the protection of trees and landscape at this location given its sensitivity.”

“However the Council seems to have gone asleep on the job and allowed the clear felling. I would like to know who in the Council is responsible for this and whether or not Fingal has any tree protection policy for the Dublin 15 area.”

“All over Dublin 15, trees are being destroyed on a regular basis, particularly if they are more than 100 years old. It seems that as far as the management of Fingal County Council is concerned, Dublin 15 comes bottom of the list when it comes to environmental protection.”

“I am calling on the Manager to visit the site to see for himself the destruction of the landscape that has taken place. This is the same manager who, when the gatelodge at the Racecourse was accidentally destroyed, committed as the then Planning Manager to having it re-instated and the trees on the racecourse protected. Every week more and more trees on the site of the Racecourse Development are destroyed, contributing to it being one of the ugliest development sites in the whole of the Dublin 15 area.

What should be a prestige entry point to Fingal obviously counts for nothing in the eyes of the Fingal Management.

A report in a Sunday newspaper that a site shortlisted for the proposed super prison in North Dublin has been sold for €100,000 per acre – half of what the state paid for the Thorton Hall site – is of serious concern, according to Labour’s Joan Burton.

Deputy Burton said: “This adds further weight to the suggestion that the Government paid at least twice the market rate for the land in handing over €30 million for the site. They acquired 50 acres more land than was needed at the excessive price of €200,000 per acre, and did not pay sufficient attention to secondary costs such as the developing access routes and public access to the site.

“Today’s newspaper report suggests that there are still serious questions to be answered by the Minister for Justice about this site. In fact many of the questions raised by the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General into this matter late last year, still have not been addressed.

“Throughout the purchasing process, the Minister refused to answers questions arising from genuine concerns that the site was unsuitable and overvalued and that locating a super-prison in this rural location destroyed the possibility for strategic planning of development in the area.

“The evaluation criteria was not applied consistently to all projects under evaluation and as a result differences in accessibility by road and public transport and comparative costs of providing water, sewage, energy etc were not properly taken into account when choosing which site to purchase.

“No comprehensive analysis was carried out of work that would need to be done after the purchase. For example, the cost of widening access roads to the Thornton site was not taken into account when making the purchasing decision.

“This whole episode shows the desperate need for reform of the land acquisitions process so that sites can be properly evaluated, with considerations such as access and other facilities being accounted for during the purchasing process.

“Labour believes that the core problem underlying the spate of ‘waste stories’ is one of political responsibility, or rather, irresponsibility. The present Government has adopted a cavalier approach to taxpayers’ money. Its duty to steward that money wisely has been disregarded, and accountability avoided.

“In order to achieve better value for money in public services, a number of major changes are needed to the way public spending is managed. We need to reform the structure of accountability to make it clear who is accountable for what, and in particular, defining the responsibilities of Ministers. Rather than hiding behind a legal fudge, Ministers should be clearly responsible for their own actions, and for the supervision of their departments. Where Ministers fail, the public should know, and when civil servants fail, the public should know what the Minister did about it.”

The decision by An Bord Pleanala to allow a shed in Summerfield, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 to be used as residential accommodation is astonishing and disturbing according to Labour Party TD, Joan Burton.Deputy Burton said: “In making its decision the Board overturned both the recommendation of its own inspector and of Fingal County Council, who quite rightly opposed the conversion of a concrete garden shed in the back garden of semi detached house, into living accommodation.

“I’m calling on the Chair of An Bord Pleanala to explain how they reached this extraordinary decision, and what precedence if any it sets for similar applications in Dublin 15 and nationwide.

“The Board’s decision allows the shed to be used for living purposes for a five year period only, and shall be occupied only by people connected to household. However, it is difficult to see how the Board or Fingal County Council is going to check that this condition is complied with.

“This could open the floodgates. I am now concerned that this decision gives the green light to other conversions of sheds to living accommodation, particularly given the demand for rented accommodation in the Dublin area.

“While there has been a significant number of side-garden sites being used to build houses and gardens in greater Dublin area, extending this to shed conversions is completely at variance with local authority’s building and planning standards for housing and accommodation.”

Further details available at: http://www.pleanala.ie/data1/searchdetails.asp?id=6348664&caseno=218898

An Bord Pleanala has turned down an appeal by Kimpton Vale against the decision by Fingal County Council to refuse planning permission for an increase in the height and density of its already permitted development at Diswellstown.

The original planning permission approved 131 dwelling units, but this was followed by an application to increase the development to a 4 – 8 storey apartment block of 210 apartments.

Deputy Burton said, “I welcome this decision by An Bord Pleanala. This application was opportunistic and would not have benefited either existing or future communities in the area. The surrounding residential dwellings are predominantly 2 storey with a small number of 3 storey apartments. A development of this size would have been completely inappropriate”.

“Many local residents contacted me about this follow up application by Kimpton Vale developers, to raise their serious concerns about the effect the additional units would have on amenities and traffic in the area. I am delighted that An Bord Pleanala have recognised this and chosen to promote sustainable development in the area.”

Fingal County Council has put in a request for detailed information from the developer of the Garryknock and Sundayswell site, including a request for exact details of land ownership.

Deputy Burton said, “I am delighted that the planning authorities in Fingal County Council are undertaking such a detailed and critical analysis of this proposal, which were it to go through as per the initial plans would result in a huge loss of trees in the area of College Grove, Castleknock Way and Woodberry.”

In particular, points 1 and 9 on the attached request are of note. Point 1 deals with whether or not the developer owns the land and has sorted out boundary issues while point 9 discusses the issue of what is to happen to the trees on the site.

Deputy Burton has welcomed the news Fingal County Council have granted planning permission to Iarnrod Eireann for the construction of pedestrian bridges at Clonsilla and Coolmine railway stations.

Deputy Burton said, “I am delighted that both applications for planning permission have been approved by Fingal County Council. I hope that both projects can proceed to tender as soon as possible so that pedestrians and commuters can face the winter with an additional degree of safety.”

“I also want to congratulate local residents for their successful and hard fought campaign to address these dangerous crossing points and get these bridges built.”