Residents are ‘disappointed’ by Dargle plan

RESIDENTS of the River Lane area are taking stock and considering how to proceed, following a council vote to allow a ramp into the Dargle from the end of the People’s Park.

Councillors voted 24 in favour, five against, two absent, and one abstained at a meeting of Wicklow County Council on Monday.

‘Disappointed would be the main sentiment by everybody,’ said spokesman Eugene Raeside. ‘We didn’t want this to go ahead. We feel that there are issues regarding public safety.’

He said that legal issues raised by the residents on a previous occasion should have been investigated before the vote went ahead. Members heard on Monday that the council’s legal advice is that they are free to proceed.

‘We are still in the process of looking at the legalities of this even if the council are not,’ said Mr Raeside. ‘By allowing the vote to go ahead, they appear quite happy with the legal advice. But it contradicts our legal advice,’ he said.

Mr Raeside said that the group’s plans are not fully formed, but they are talking to their legal team about the best way forward.

‘ That’s where we’re at. We’re taking stock, and we’re all exhausted. We felt the councillors could have allowed another month to the next meeting, to assure us and satisfy the councillors who were bringing the legal issues forward,’ said Mr Raeside. ‘We are trying now to do what the executive in the council should be doing.’

The council’s part eight planning application is to build a ramp for essential maintenance to the flood defence scheme at the river.

The residents have proposed an alternative location at The Slang, however engineer Marc Devereux has said that this is not a suitable site.

Residents have suffered noise and disruption opposite their homes for the past five years during works, they have told councillors. Part of the People’s Park, part of the ramp area, was the subject of a CPO, according to officials, and they said that their legal advices is that they can work on the area.