Land handed over to Dunlavin Walkways
ALMOST one acre of land in Dunlavin will now be used by Dunlavin Walkways Ltd.
At Monday’s meeting of Wicklow County Council senior executive officer Lorraine Gallagher said it was proposed to dispose of 0.974 acres of land in Dunlavin Lower to Dunlavin Walkways
Ltd.
Cllr Tommy Cullen looked for further details about the disposal asking if the land had been previously designated for social housing.
Ms Gallagher said it formed part of the railway embankment and isn’t zoned for residential or educational and forms part of the boundary for the council’s land.
Cllr Cullen said there had been planning permission granted in the past for 56 social housing which he said ‘were still waiting to be built’. He said he had studied the map and the land for disposal seemed to be in the area of the land designated for social housing.
CEO of Wicklow County Council Frank Curran said that the land in question was ‘separate to that housing scheme. It’s outside that area.’
‘Are you certain?’ questioned Cllr Cullen. ‘I don’t want to put 56 houses at risk because of a simple planning error’, he said. ‘I’ve no problem if it’s outside the area’, said Cllr Cullen.
In the end the members agreed to dispose of the land and Cllr Cullen said that if houses were to be built they shouldn’t be overlooked. WICKLOW is becoming more and more accessible for people with disabilities.
Speaking at last Monday’s meeting of Wicklow County Council Laura English of the Disability Federation of Ireland said she works with the council two days a week working on accessibility.
She began her presentation by paying tribute to disability activist John Doyle of Bray whom she said had implemented massive changes nationally.
Ms English said that a survey of the public showed that the general perception is that people with disabilities are ‘doing great’. She said that there is a 14 per cent increase in the number of people with disabilities trying to access social housing since 2013.
She said that a total of 69 per cent of people with disabilities are unemployed with only 63 per cent of bus routes accessible for people with disabilities while only five per cent of taxis are accessible to people with disabilities.
Ms English said that there are over 19,000 in Wicklow with a disability compared to 17,000 a number of years ago.
She said a number of training workshops are being planned for the coming months while it is hoped to launch a Disability Bray website soon. Summer camps for children with disabilities are also on the cards.
A national public awareness cam- paign is also under way.
Ms English said that Wicklow is leading the way in terms of accessibility saying she understood that Wicklow is the only council in Ireland who have hired someone at Disability Federation of Ireland to work with them.
Cllr Miriam Murphy said excellent work had been done by the council over the past year in terms of disability access. ‘It shows we have a voice’, she said. Cllr Murphy said the Disability Federation of Ireland had made huge strides over its existence despite limited funding.
She spoke of her experience of trying to campaign for equality when she realised that a well known chain of hairdressers wasn’t accessible to people with disabilities.
She said a new law, if passed by the EU, will ensure that disability access is in place.
Cllr John Snell said that both Cllr Murphy and Cllr Gerry O’Neill had done untold work in the area of disability and access over the years and urged all the councillors to look at the discretionary budgets when it comes to accessibility.
He also suggested that some of the €788,000 development levies due in Bray should be used to upgrade the Main Street adding it would be a lasting legacy in the name of John Doyle.
Cllr O’Neill praised west Wicklow engineer Declan Geraty for improving accessibility in the area.
Cllr Grainne McLoughlin said that it was up to all the members to be vocal about improving access for people with disabilities.
Cllr Mary Kavanagh praised Ms English for her work adding the EU treaty would be ‘ground breaking’ if passed adding that the major stumbling block was money because if passed big changes would have to be implemented.