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Dunboyne Combined Residents Association
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Vo1 1 Issue 6 DUNBOYNE COMBINED RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION April 2001
Dunboyne Development Plan As you have probably heard by now the Development Plan for Dunboyne for the next five years was adopted by Meath County Council on 5th March. There have been various stories in the media as to what lands were actually rezoned in Dunboyne. The facts are that the people YOU elected to represent YOU, Cllrs Mary Bergin, Brian Fitzgerald, Nick Killian, Oliver Brooks, John Fanning and Oliver Tormey voted, against YOUR expressed wishes, to rezone 93 acres of land in Dunboyne as follows: Castle Grounds 50 acres for housing - normal density = 600 houses Walsh's, Courthill 26 acres for - high density housing = 550 houses Lands north of Old Fairgreen/Millfarm 17 acres - normal density = 204 houses. These rezonings together with the 20 acres zoned but as yet undeveloped from the 1997 Dunboyne Development Plan would increase the population from 5,500 at present to 10,280 which is a clear breach of the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area.
The Good News 1. The long campaign to stop the rezoning has had an impact. The lands east of the old railway line, that is the Green Belt between Dunboyne and Clonee, has not been rezoned. An Area Action Plan is to be carried out for these lands in the next twelve months taking into account various reports on the possibility of reopening the railway line.It is now up to the community to continue the campaign to protect this green belt. DCRA's position remains firm and stronger than ever that the retention of this green belt is absolutely vital for the preservation of the identity and character of our village. The total support of all the community has won out so far on this campaign despite the lack of support and indeed the betrayal by our local councillors. This issue has now gained national media attention and we intend keeping it right there in the public gaze. It is a prime example of a community's battle against the combined might of the developer/political alliance whose sole motive is certainly not proper planning. Of course an election which is due in the next twelve months will help to require politicians to canvass for our support. It will also give our residents the opportunity to retarget their voting power. Failure to see this campaign through would be a huge blow to local democracy. 2. The Cowpark, approximately 30 acres, has been rezoned from agriculture to community uses e.g. playing fields and facilities for local sporting organisations. DCRA has been fully in support of this change. Spelling It Out - Dunboyne Castle The rezoning of 50 acres of the Castle Grounds for housing, providing an additional 600 houses at least, is a major disappointment considering that 2,500 letters had been written by residents and sent to Meath County Council opposing the rezoning of these lands and asking that the present rezoning be retained and the area be developed as a hotel and leisure amenity, and the grounds become an open public park with facilities for all sporting organisations and for all the residents of Duunboyne. The victims of the severe flooding on 6th November have quickly been forgotten. The damage to homes and the trauma caused to families was immense. The flooding was aggravated by housing development undertaken in recent years. This rezoning is wreckless as these lands are adjoining the estates most affected and to make matters worse, are upstream which means that the rapid run-off of water from this massive proposed estate into the Castle River will greatly increase the flooding problem in Beechdale, River Court, Hamilton Hall, Larchfield, Woodview, Castleview and the village centre area. Despite the fact that the Cowpark has been rezoned for community uses the owners/developers of the Castle lands and the County Councillors worked to enlist some Dunboyne sporting organisations in support of rezonings. This seriously undermined our campaign as councillors seized this as an excuse to justify their decisions. DCRA will forcefully oppose all future planning submissions consequent on the rezonings that have been approved.
"The Castle and all its grounds are sacrosanct and should never be built upon but rather ways should be explored to see how the Castle, its grounds and farm could best be utilised to serve the community." -- Mary Wallace TD prior to the last General Election. Councillor Brian Fitzgerald, one of the prime movers of this rezoning has done an amazing U-turn in just over a year since the local elections. He then stated that the Castle and its lands which had been owned by the State (North Eastern Health Board) were ordered to be sold-off with a very restrictive special zoning. As a result, he said, it was sold for a song on account of that special zoning. He promised that he would never vote to rezone these lands. But he did. He seconded the proposal to rezone. John Bruton TD had backed DCRA's position that there should be no rezoning of the Castle lands until alternatives are explored. However, not only did his F.G. Councillor John Fanning vote for the rezoning but our local F.G. Councillor, Mary Bergin, proposed it, seconded by Cllr Brian Fitzgerald and supported by three Fianna Fail Councillors - Killian,Tormey and Brooks. No wonder that public confidence in our political system is at an all time low. What has been zoned is wholly unnecessary and the councillors have failed totally to justify this complete breach of trust. They have made decisions, which when implemented, will have serious and adverse consequences for this community in terms of traffic, schools and services, public transport, air quality, significantly increased flood potential, huge pressure on resources, threat to community life, loss of identity, and the very real implications of being swallowed up into the Dublin sprawl. The Strategic Planning Guidelines and Possible Legal Challenge of Development Plan. In the case of Dunboyne and South Meath as a whole the legal route may be the only option left to residents to ensure our councillors behave in a responsible manner and to prevent the entire area being subsumed into the urban sprawl of Dublin. DCRA is convinced that the County Meath Development Plan is a clear breach of the SPGs as they are quite specific that development in towns such as Dunboyne, Clonee, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin should be strictly to meet local needs only rather than provide for urban sprawl from Dublin. This is now the law, since 1st January 2001, as part of the new Planning and Development Act 2000. The KildareMeathWicklow Planning Alliance working with An Taisce have acquired legal opinion from Senior Counsel that the Dunboyne Development Plan together with a number of other town plans in Meath, Kildare and Wicklow are in clear breach of the SPGs and could be successfully challenged in court. The councillors’ version of democracy is to regard four letters which they claim support the zonings, as being more significant than 2,500 letters opposing the zonings. This means of course that democracy at local government level in the Dunshaughlin Area is dead and buried. The developer/ builder agenda is the engine driving our councillors’ decision making. The communities in Dunboyne and in other villages in South Meath have now no representation in Meath County Council. Over 500 students in our Secondary school voted against the zonings. How do we convince our young people to take an interest in politics when they see how political power is exercised in the Dunshaughlin area?
Other Information Village Centre Work in Progress DCRA, working with Dunboyne Tidy Towns, have met several times with the engineer in charge of our village centre reconstruction to try to ensure that local people have an input into the work being carried out. We continually emphasise the need to take full advantage of this once-off opportunity to get things right. A detailed report was prepared for the engineer highlighting the type of features that we feel should be included. We have given the engineer photographs of street lighting, seating, bins etc in Maynooth and other towns pointing out the good aspects of these developments. We have identified locations where additional trees should be planted and supplied details of local landscape gardeners who could do the work. We have highlighted the concerns in relation to the proposal to lay a four-meter path through the Green, something that some members of the community would not like to see. What a disgraceful entry to our village! Despite promises made two years ago to reconstruct the side barriers and provide a footpath/cycle lane over the bridge nothing has been done. It is not safe for vehicle traffic and is certainly not safe for cyclists and pedestrians to use. DCRA and Tidy Towns are writing to Meath Co Co again to highlight the dangerous state of this bridge. We urge as many people as possible to voice their concerns similarly. The more the problem is highlighted the better the prospect of getting something done about it. Serious work needs to be done to lessen the risk of future flooding from both the Castle and Tolka rivers. A member of DCRA, who is a qualified engineer, is working on this project. Out of respect for our residents and their families who were so traumatically affected by recent flooding, DCRA is making this matter a central issue with the County Council. Members of DCRA are in regular contact with MCC. We again urge those concerned to help to keep the pressure on the county council to ensure that action is taken to rectify this problem. The proposed village of Kilbride has been dropped from the plan. However the rezoning of 250 acres for industrial development and the 11 acres residential at Clonee are in clear breach of the Strategic Planning Guidelines and an infringement of the green belt.
DCRA are a leading group within the partnership of the Meath Planning Alliance(MPA), and the KildareMeathWicklow Planning Alliance (KMWPA). The two main reasons for the founding of these alliances are:
NewNewNew: DCRAY(DCRA Youth). If you are 15 years of age or older, interested in the preservation and development of Dunboyne, are prepared to work for a better environment and would like to join a Dunboyne Combined Residents Association Youth Group let us know sending us an email or by contacting a committee member of your Residents Association. To have DCRANEWS & DCRA Information emailed to you on a regular basis please contact: mcgrathjim@esatclear.ie What improvements do you wish to see in Dunboyne? Please send mail |
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