Dunboyne Millenium Challenge - Trees Survey - The Voices of Dunboyne - Newsflash - The Cow Park - The Millennium Committee
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The printed
edition of this newsletter is sponsored by AIB. We are delighted to be
now open in Dunboyne with these opening Hours:
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Dunboyne's Millennium Challenge
We are the Community privileged to be living in Dunboyne at this time. We have inherited this special place and as temporary caretakers, we have the responsibility to preserve, protect and enhance our village and its environment. Meath County Council is preparing a new development plan for the county. The current Dunboyne Development Plan 1997 will be reviewed as apart of this process. There should be minimal changes to it. DCRA has submitted to the County Council a thirty page document entitled 'Towards a Dunboyne Development Plan 2000". There is a copy of this submission in the Dunboyne Library and on our website. Each affiliated Residents Association also has a copy.Why a Development Plan?
Due to the unprecedented growth of the Greater Dublin Area, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Noel Dempsey TD, launched the "Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area" in March '99. All Local Authorities are required to ensure that their development plans for the 12 year period until 2011, are in line with this strategic document.
What Do the Guidelines Say?
- Urban overspill from the Metropolitan DubIin Area into the surrounding counties which is adding to the horrendous traffic problem which we have at present, must be prevented.
- In the rural areas of our county, which are called the Hinterland, development should be concentrated in self-sufficient towns such as Navan, Newbridge, Naas, Wicklow, Arklow, and Adly, well away from the city.
- There should be a strategic green belt between Dunboyne and the Metropolitan Area which extends to the Dublin border at Clonee.
- Dunboyne is in the Hinterland area and development should only be for local needs, and should not be used to accommodate urban sprawl, further adding to the traffic gridlock we experience daily on our way to the city.
That dreaded word "re-zoning" raises its ugly head during these planning reviews. What happens is that landowners and developers, whose primary objective is understandably profit, make submissions to Meath County Council to have lands re-zoned from agricultural to residential/commercial or industrial use. DCRA's aim is to see that the new guidelines are strictly enforced during the present review.
List
of Recent Re-Zoning Submissions:
| Mennolly Homes: | 88 acres. Residential | |
| John Connaughton Ltd: | 120 acres. Lands on Clonee side of old railway Iine, near Mill Farm. Residential and commercial. | |
| Johnstown Construction Company Ltd: | 28 acres at Bracetown, near Old Fairgreen. Mixed development | |
| Lark Developments Ltd: | Portan Road, Clonee. 251 acres. Light industrial and Busmiess Park. | |
| Submitted by Jack Fitzsinions, Architects: | 153 hectacres at Hintown, nr Clonee. Residential and Commercial. | |
| Matt. Brady: | Residential. Dunboyne Castle. 20 acres. Clonee/Clonsilla Road. | |
| Sean Boylan : | 60 acres. Castlefarm. Residential. | |
| Peter Henshaw: | 60 acres. Bennetstown. Residential. | |
| Collierstown Nth,Summerhill Rd. | 27acres. Residential. | |
| North Side of Clonee: | Substantial re-zonings. |
It does not require more than a cursory inspection by anyone thoroughly familiar with the details of the new planning guidelines and their implications, to realise that all ten submissions should be rejected on principle because thev all fail to comply with the criteria demanded.
Who Decides Land Re-Zoning?
Staff of the Planning Department Meath County Council, elected County Councillors and Dunboyne Community are partners in the planining process. The final decision is a reserved function of elected members.
Good Local Democracy at Work
The collective vote of the six elected members of the Dunshaughlin Electoral Area will be crucial to the outcome. At a pre-election meetmg with them, held on 20th May '99, they each made their commitments to Dunboyne Combmied Residents Association. We are sure they will honour these.
What were these Commitments?
Retention of Dunboyne Castle and lands as a community amenity. Actively support the retention of the green belt between Clonee and Dunboyne. Support no flulher re-zonings inDunboyne until the year 2006, at the earliest, so that the present community can settle in and adequate infrastructures and community amenities are put inplace.
Time to call
a Halt : Recent studies and catastrophic experience in the past have completely
discredited the principle that planning should be"developer led".
No one can fail to appreciate that the large number of beautiful mature trees in the village and adjoining woodlands on the Castle and Courthill estates make a major contribution to the character of Dunboyne. You will be interested to know that we have been making a survey of all the trees within a circle of one kilometre of the village centre with a view to deciding what needs to be done by way of conservation. We have, however, confined our attention to the larger mature trees and you won't be surprised to learn that there are some 1200 of these. It is becoming clear that in order to preserve the character of the area we should at least be considering a programme of replanting. This would be a really worthwhile action to mark the millennium.
There are 15 Residents Associations
in membership of Dunboyne Combined Residents Association representing 1,
282 households.
Further to our meeting last year with District Superintendent Pat Lamb, we are pleased that Garda Barry Monaghan has been appointed Community Liaison Officer for Dunboyne. He looks forward to working with Residents Associations, local communities and Neighbourhood Watch groups. He will be exercising a positive role towards the reduction of crime. Barry will be happy to respond when you call him on Ph: 8252211.
DCRA have held meetings with Meath County Council regarding the Village Centre Project to be completed early next year. DCRA have requested that all electric and telephone wiring be conducted underground and that special consideration be given to the suitability of street lighting and furnishings.
Meath County Council is committed to providing a pedestrian through-way at Station Road Bridge. A number of options are being considered. Also the side railings at the bridge are badly damaged. The County Council acknowledges that more environmentally suitable structures are needed to replace this eyesore.
Dunboyne Community
College recently erected an iron railing around its playing field
area replacing a wire fencing constructed by the developer. Work has now
begun on laying down the surface of the playing field. The final stage,
as required by An Bord Pleanala, is the planting that must be carried out
at the college side of the railing throughout its full length.
Meath County Council is to open
a new Regional Office at Dunshaughlin in October 2000 to deal with the
operational services of the Council. Meath County Council is separating
functional matters from policy issues. It will leave policy issues with
County Councillors. When these offices, costing 1.7million, are open, the
public will be able to transact business in all matters that are currently
dealt with at County Hall, Navan. The public will also be able to attend
Area Council meetings.
Beyond Sean Boylan's on the Dunboyne-Clonee
Road there are approximately thirty acres of land that were used for the
grazing of cattle by local people with the approval of the then Land Comnnission.
The Department of Agriculture and Food is in the process of making a decision
about the future use of these lands at Castlefarm. The Dunboyne Development
Plan 1997 and 'Towards a Dunboyne Development
Plan 2000" both demand that a green belt be protected between Dunboyne
and the Clonee/Dublin overspill. Therefore these lands should remain zoned
agricultural in perpetuity or should be rezoned "amenity" land for the
people of Dunboyne. Castlefarm lands lie adjacent to the Tolka River and
form part of Tolka Valley Linear Park proposed by the Strategic Plan for
Greater DubIin. DCRA fully supports the five sporting orgamisation in Dunboyne
who have submitted a strong case for the rezoning of Castlefann land for
use as a leisure and sports amenity.
DCRA affiliated Associations throughout
Dunboyne have thrown their weight behind the Millennium Committee in its
efforts to raise money for New Year's Eve celebrations in the village.
After Mass at 6.00pm on December 31st there will be music inthe village
square together with special treats for young people. The big event of
the evening will be a fireworks display at 8.00pm Other events will be
arranged throughout 2000.
What improvements do you wish to see in Dunboyne?
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