An Irish Planning Students Blog

Writes Fiona Gartland of the Irish Times:

DEVELOPER SEÁN Dunne has been granted planning permission to demolish and rebuild Hume House, a 1960s office block in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

An Bord Pleanála granted permission to Mountbrook Group, a company owned by Mr Dunne, for the development.

Approval was granted with 16 conditions, including that external finishes for the building should be agreed in advance with Dublin City Council.

Financier Dermot Desmond was among the objectors to the proposal, describing the design as “ugly”. He had said the facade treatment and the quality of the design were both “poor” and the materials “seem to be chosen for their cost-effectiveness as opposed to . . . design interest”.

Among the other objectors were An Taisce and the Pembroke Road Residents Association, which claimed the plan represented an attempt to improve the valuation of the site before it was taken over by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

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Decisions made this week by Dublin city councillors will determine the height and scale of future developments, writes FRANK MACDONALD

WHETHER NEW buildings in Dublin should be relatively high or low has become the most contentious issue confronting councillors as they begin a series of special meetings today to deal with the draft Dublin City Development Plan 2011-2017.

On the one hand, An Taisce maintains the current draft prepared by city planners “will fuel a future splurge of land speculation and undermine decades of the planning control that has maintained Dublin as a historic low-rise major European city”.

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Of course lets not forget that DIT Grangegorman is approved under the plan! Well the first phase of Grangegorman at least. Woo as an alumni some day i will be able to visit DIT as a proper college with a campus. Pretty cool.

Big pity to see the Navan Rail line and the western rail corridor axed though. Not a great day for the west or the extended commuter belt in term of near term infrastructure.

Now this is not strictly planning related but i do have a problem with this plan. Its all about the building of the hard stuff, they are rejoicing on the news with the prospect of job creation and they are bandying around words like ‘sustainable jobs’, this presents jobs for a number of years and a very small portion after the projects have been built and where are we left then? Back to square one with all the construction workers with no big projects to build!

Still though I am so happy to see metro north given the go ahead, as i stand to benefit from it the most if i’m still living here when its finished that is.

The Government has announced a new €39 billion capital investment plan until 2016 that prioritises major projects such as Metro North, the Dart interconnector and the new DIT campus in Grangegorman but will result in delays for other promised infrastructure projects.

The new seven-year plan was unveiled at a press conference this afternoon by the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Green Party leader, the Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

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A LEADING academic has denounced decentralisation as a failed strategy which has undermined the institutional fabric of the state and become a charter for mileage claims, writes Anita Guidera.

Professor Brigid Laffin, principal of the college of humanities at UCD, told the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, yesterday that failures of accountability went beyond unethical behaviour to the performance of public institutions and those holding positions of responsibility.

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TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has been challenged to “show his hand” over the Poolbeg incinerator and declare whether it is Government policy to allow it proceed or to be scrapped.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said that it was now incumbent on Mr Cowen to state his position on the planned Dublin regional waste incinerator.

Last week Mr Gormley published a draft waste policy plan which strongly favours mechanical and biological treatment of waste over incineration.

If implemented, it would have the effect of making a large incinerator like Poolbeg unviable.

Mr Hogan said yesterday that Mr Cowen had merely welcomed the consultation process that will now take place in relation to the draft policy.

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From todays Irish Times:

THE LOBBY group Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has written to President Mary McAleese urging her to convene the Council of State with a view to referring the planning Act to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.

A last-minute amendment to the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act means members of the public “will find it impossible to obtain legal representation if their costs will not be met, even when they win against the State”, it warned.

In its letter to the President, the group claims this amending legislation, which was guillotined through the Dáil and Seanad last week, will prevent citizens taking cases to the courts – contrary to the Constitution as well as to EU directives.

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And so came to pass that the planning amendments bill of 2009 passed on the balmy humid day that was the last day of term for the seanad.

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Only time will tell!

SPIKE ISLAND was officially handed over to Cork County Council yesterday for use as a tourist amenity amid efforts to develop it into an attraction comparable to Alcatraz in the US.

Alcatraz in San Francisco, which was only a prison for 20 years, attracts about 1.4 million visitors each year while Fort McHenry, off Baltimore, which served as a transit prison during the American Civil War, receives about 700,000 visitors annually.

Spike was first a prison in the mid-19th century, often the last place in Ireland prisoners saw before being transported overseas. At the time it held as many as 2,500 prisoners. (more…)

Only time will tell as to whether this is true or not…

FORTY major road projects and key rail and Luas projects have been scrapped because there is no money to build them.

Nine new motorway rest areas planned for the M7 (Limerick), M8 (Cork), M9 (Waterford), M3 (Cavan) and N11 (Wexford) have also been mothballed by the Government, an Irish Independent investigation has found. The National Roads Authority (NRA) has run out of money to build the 40 roads, which include bypasses and dual carriageways.

It has been “directed” by the Government not to build the remaining rest areas along motorways, sources revealed.

The axed projects will be confirmed in a government mid-term review of the National Development Plan (NDP), which is expected to be completed within weeks. (more…)

NEW MEASURES to reduce the risk of flooding in Cork city could be in place within 18 months, according to Cork city manager Joe Gavin, following confirmation that the OPW is to appoint consultants to oversee the project.

Mr Gavin confirmed the OPW had opted for localised flood defences on the Lee upstream of Cork city which would allow the ESB to discharge higher volumes of water from Inniscarra dam without causing flooding in the city centre.

He said the proposal, which involves localised work and changes to the ESB operating regime, was less costly and more easily implemented than another proposal which involved building tidal barriers and raising quay walls which would cost €145 million and take several years.

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