Views on new development
COUNCIL officials attended last week’s meeting of Greystones Municipal District to get feedback from members on a planned Cairn Homes development at Farrankelly.
The plans include the construction of 426 dwellings, a creche, residential amenity building, and active open space.
Planning engineer Fergal Keogh attended, as well as planner Aisling McNamara and administrative officer Siobhan O’Brien.
Members heard that the process for submitting responses was now closed. A number of members had made their own submissions during the process.
At this stage, the officials were to get their feedback, which would be included in the chief executive’s report to An Bord Pleanala.
Members heard that the bord has a 16 week period to decide whether to grant permission for the strategic housing development.
Cllr Derek Mitchell said that he thinks the worst problem is that the plan doesn’t satisfy the road objective, with regard to forming a link to Priory Road to provide entry to Eden Gate. ‘I don’t think it’s feasible,’ he said.
He had concerns that a planned road wouldn’t be built at all. ‘Looking at the traffic projections, they didn’t seem to accept any traffic coming from Greystones to Eden Gate as a factor in this,’ he said.
He also said that the volume of the development is too large. ‘ The volume of traffic will be horrendous.’ Cllr Mitchell said that planned sports facilities look good and he would like to see proper management
Cllr Jennifer Whitmore said that she also put in a submission the previous week. She had a few issues with the project. ‘One of those is the clustering of part five houses. They should be spread throughout the development,’ she said.
She said that there is a lot of community space and facilities. ‘ They need to be provided before phase one of the housing,’ she said. ‘I have seen other developments where people moved in and ended up waiting a long time for a playground across the road.’
She said that the stand-out issue for her is the traffic congestion in the town. ‘Not just regarding this particular development. ‘ This is a large development and will contribute to congestion. There is another Cairns development coming up as a strategic housing development also.’
Cllr Whitmore said that the application spoke about easy access to transport links. ‘All the public transport options, and the motorway, are full to capacity,’ she said.
Cllr Tom Fortune said that the SHD process is a bluff that was put in place to pretend it was quicker than applying directly to the local authority.
‘It would be better for developers to deal directly with the local authority,’ he said. ‘It was just a cute political move. Planning should be brought back to the local authorities who will focus on sustainable development rather than trying to bully things through.
‘ The fact that we can’t sit down and have a proper conversation with the local authority is a massive disadvantage.’
Other members also had concerns about the traffic and scale of the project and called for facilities to be provided along with the first phase.