"Inappropriate and unsustainable" Ticknock plan - yet again

Sunday February 08, 2015 23:31

by dublin rambler

DLR councillors to vote on Tuesday on isolation facility for elderly, hacking up the Wicklow mountains

In 2012 public opposition forced the ditching of a plan for a "retirement village" on the side of the Dublin mountains, isolated from services and public transport and cut off by the M50, in an area normally zoned for agriculture and public amenity and widely used by the public. A previous plan for a private school on the site had been rejected for similar reasons in 2005. After the 2014 local elections the plan came back in a lightly tweaked form, with the developer's sister among a number of newly elected councillors supporting the project. A proposal to amend the development plan to include this project is due to be voted on this Tuesday evening, February 10th. Meanwhile some interesting shenanigans have developed.

Indymedia regulars will be familiar with developer Rod McGovern and his plan for a "retirement village" in the middle of nowhere - with no access to public transport, cut off by the motorway and far away from anything else but in a location which he happens to own. The project has unsurprisingly been rejected by the planners and by the county council, but as a previous indymedia article noted, it just keeps coming back from the dead. Before the "retirement village" it was to have been a school - the project was rejected for the same reason, that it is a completely unsuitable location which benefits only the developer while cutting off a slice of the Dublin mountains.

In the 2014 local elections, with the collapse of mainstream parties, a number of independents supporting the plan - including McGovern's sister Lynsey - were elected. The project is now due to be put to a vote - again - at DLR county council's meeting this Tuesday evening (10 Feb).

As if from nowhere (given that the vote hasn't been publicised) councillors are being bombarded with emails claiming to come from disinterested parties who support the project. As noted on Indymedia back in June, the project has a history of "astroturfing" and this would seem to be no different. The full article is worth reading here:

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104838?condense_comment...ments

A couple of interesting titbits:

(1) Back in June the developer's website www.grangevillage.ie claimed "... discussions are ongoing with Council officials to ensure this facility can be delivered as proposed". But at the Jan 26 meeting of the Dundrum area committee it turned out that this wasn't quite true...

Cllr L McCarthy asked:

“To ask the Chief Executive to please clarify if the information on
www.grangeVillage.ie website is accurate, specifically, whether this proposal was
adopted into the DLR County Development Plan and please state if discussions are
on-going with Council Officials to ensure this facility can be delivered as stated on
the website?”

Reply:

With regard to the statement on the www.grangevillage.ie website that,
“….discussions are ongoing with Council officials to ensure this facility can be
delivered as proposed”, is incorrect. There have been no pre-planning discussions in
relation to this site."

(2) The second Indymedia article relating to this received a very strange objection, stating that the article
claimed

"the letter was signed by two members of staff working in the physiotherapist practice of recently
elected independent, Lynsey McGovern in the Sandyford-Glencullen ward"

As noted in the comments, the original article simply stated

"Interestingly, the developer’s sister Lynsey McGovern ran as an independent and was elected in
Sandyford-Glencullen. She is a physiotherapist – and the new plan now boasts the idea of including
a “stroke rehabilitation clinic”, while the developer’s website has a letter in support from the National
Rehab Hospital."

No mention of "two members of staff".

The Indymedia articles relating to this issue can be seen at

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102820 (2012)

and

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104838?condense_comment...ments (2014).