An Irish Planning Students Blog

Boom-time plans to turn Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar into a gateway for economic development met with limited success, writes FRANK McDONALD

IT WAS at the edge of Rochfortbridge that the future direction of Dublin’s sprawl first became evident in the mid-1990s. Exactly 80km from the capital, housing estates were materialising on the outskirts of this Co Westmeath village to cater for first-time home buyers who had been squeezed out of the property market in Dublin.

They hit the road early, between 6.30am and 7am every weekday to commute to jobs in or around the city, leaving the estates eerily devoid of most signs of life. A survey in 2001 by transition-year students at the local secondary school found that 80 per cent of the new residents were from Dublin and were commuting to work there. (more…)

THE FRDAY INTERVIEW – Dermot Byrne chief executive, EirGrid: THE VISTA from Dermot Byrne’s Ballsbridge office is dominated by the spectacular curvilinear construction that is the new Aviva stadium.

Instead of enjoying this remarkable view as he works, however, the EirGrid chief executive has angled his desk to face a wall adorned with a stark black-and-white sketch that could only be considered beautiful by an electrical engineer.

He explains that the tangle of lines is an artist’s impression of the power plant at the Coolkeeragh power station in Derry, which he once managed during his tenure with ESB. One senses that it’s the nuts and bolts of the electricity game that really fires the Dubliner’s imagination.

“For an industry that’s been around for over 100 years, it still succeeds at being very exciting and very dynamic,” he says.

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Not much in the papers this week. The highlights being gross residential overzoning in the State, but 800, 000 homes – that cant be right. The Liffey man is to be cancelled indefinitely and the continuing dispute over the change in Limerick Border continues.

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Welcome to the first edition of what i hope to be many, which is basically a round-up of all the planning related news to which links are available to on the net.

IrishTimes

Not too much in the Irish Times this weekend:

Unemployed architects to give workshops in schools – http://bit.ly/df98iU

Survey by TomTom says Dublin traffic among worst in Europe –  http://bit.ly/a6JOBZ

Irish Independent:

Plenty to read in the Indo this weekend.

Plans for offenders’ centre spark anger - http://bit.ly/cO8mLN
Residents and business’s are not happy with the department of justice for indicating they will locate an offenders centre on Capel street / Henry street.

Councils face bankruptcy over deals struck on housing during the boom – http://bit.ly/c1f7p8
Local authorities across the country could be facing bankruptcy or severe financial difficulties over deals which were struck with developers at the height of the property boom to buy social and affordable homes.

Gormley urges locals to ‘cool it a bit’ over boundary - http://bit.ly/aEUeCT
The ongoing saga of expanding the Limerick City Council Boundary.

Galway rents stabilise in first quarter of 2010 - http://bit.ly/aMNb7m
Rents for some sectors of the Galway commercial property market stabilised during the first quarter of the year after having earlier fallen sharply from their 2008 peaks.

Electricity demand falls to 2005 levels on economy slump;  Eirgrid – http://bit.ly/adzJ8Q
Electricity demand fell to a level not seen since 2005 as a result of the economic slowdown and will probably not recover to 2008 levels until some time between 2012 and 2014, according to the chief executive of Eirgrid, the semi-state body that manages the island’s electricity transmission network.

Sunday Tribune

Smurfit eyes K Club rezoning as Gannon to sell up – http://bit.ly/cbRrPZ

‘Mr Newry’ says number of Southern shoppers down 50% - http://bit.ly/905L3a

Mansfield rival opposes school plan – http://bit.ly/aWF9O8
Objections to plan for an English language school for Saudi Arabian students at Citywest in Dublin

Straight Talking, Lorcan Sirr – Ghost estates will haunt us for years – http://bit.ly/cMdjsX
Details all the headaches the state must face in terms of extablishing how many houses form the ghost estates and also the issues with what happens when they do as the local authorities duty is not to ensure that any land situate in their functional area does not become or continue to be a derelict site.

Thats it for this weekend folks

Dublin needs to start having marchs like these guys - Clermont ASM fans in Dublin for the Heinken Cup QF 2010

Colin

IRISH PLANNING INSTITUTE CONFERENCE: TOWN CENTRES will have to be made more appealing to the “grey market” of half-a-million Irish people over the age of 65, including those who had become online “silver surfers”, according to a leading retail specialist.

Cormac Kennedy, of CBRE estate agents, told the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) annual conference in Tullamore yesterday that suburban malls were “chasing that market” with accessible websites, free car parking and more leisure facilities.

“With 400 million active users on Facebook and 50 million messages a day on Twitter, word of mouth is being replaced by word of mouse,” he said. “Yet Dublin city centre or Cork city centre as retail areas have no internet presence compared to, say, Dundrum.

“More and more older people are using internet a lot, so retailers without a place on the web will lose out. Retailers will follow footfalls, and city and town centres need to market themselves against suburban competition if they are to survive.”

Although historic city and town centres scored highly for their “sense of place”, he said access was very important. “Car parking is king, and the availability of free parking in out-of-town centres is a great draw.”

Mr Kennedy said CBRE was receiving a lot more inquiries over the past few months from international retailers seeking to set up here than in 2009. “There’s better value in property terms. The sky hasn’t fallen in, and we still have people spending.”

However, in terms of the average number of people shopping per hour, he said there was a 7 per cent to 8 per cent drop in “footfall” on Dublin’s Grafton Street and Henry Street. “We have to do something to stop that. Otherwise retailers will move to where the footfall is.”

Alison Harvey of the Heritage Council said city and town centres needed to be managed like shopping centres, with a variety of uses to ensure their long-term vitality. Maintaining an attractive public realm also meant “zero tolerance” for graffiti and vandalism.

Richard Guiney, chief executive of the Dublin City Centre Business Improvement District (Bid), said there was 3,200sq m of graffiti in the core retail area when it started two years ago; this was now down to 100sq m “and that’s gone within a day or two”.

He said surveys had shown the city centre to be 37 per cent cleaner than previously, while the number of people who say Dublin is “dirty” had halved. He attributed this to the Bid’s supplementary cleaning and graffiti-removal programmes.

He said the Bid concept had been borrowed from North America, and the aim in Dublin was to ensure the city centre remained “dynamic”.

Working with Dublin City Council, the Garda and other agencies, he said anti-social behaviour was being tackled, extra street lighting installed and more events organised, such as a forthcoming arts festival around “bohemian” South Great George’s Street.

FRANK McDONALD Environment Editor in Tullamore

IrishTimes

CORK LABOUR TD Ciarán Lynch has reiterated his call for an independent inquiry into the causes of November flooding in Cork following conflicting statements about flood warnings to businesses and residents in Cork city and county.

According to Mr Lynch, clarification is required after comments by ESB chief executive Padraig McManus before a joint Oireachtas committee about the warnings given by the company to Cork City Council prompted a strong rebuke from Cork city manager Joe Gavin.

“The ESB claim that they gave as much advance warning to local authorities as was possible in the circumstances, while the city council would dispute that. We need to bring in expert opinion so that we can get to the bottom of this once and for all,” he said.

Mr McManus told the committee on Tuesday that the company had no choice but to release large volumes of water from Inniscarra Dam on November 19th last and Mr Gavin’s report to Cork City Council in December sought to shift responsibility for the flooding on to the ESB.

source: www.thehaven-cork.ie

However, Mr Gavin strongly refuted suggestions that he sought to blame the ESB for the flooding. He said he had studiously avoided apportioning blame to anyone for the flooding which is estimated to have caused €100 million worth of damage in Cork.

“At no time did I blame the ESB or seek to do so, and I assiduously avoided addressing any queries raised by the media which related to the management of the ESB dams,” said Mr Gavin, adding that contrary to what was reported his report did not criticise the ESB.

Mr Gavin said he had briefed the ESB on the contents of the report before presenting it to councillors and invited them to verify its accuracy. Moreover, on the day after it was issued a written copy was sent to the ESB and since then they had not raised any issue over its accuracy.

“It was a factual account of the event. It contained no opinion, attached no blame, and the only reference it made to the ESB w

as to thank them for their co-operation and for their offer to supply flat-bottomed trucks to help with water distribution,” he said.

An ESB spokeswoman said the Minister for the Environment was conducting an inquiry and the ESB was happy to participate in it.

IrishTimes

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has told Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to reconsider plans to rezone land in south Dublin as part of its county development plan or he may make a direction forcing it to do so.

Councillors voted to accept a motion to rezone the Park Village, Carrickmines, close to the N11 motorway, to district retail centre status despite the opposition of county manager Owen Keegan.

The motion was tabled by Fine Gael councillor Tom Joyce and Fianna Fáil councillor John Byrne and passed in November by a majority of two. Some councillors complained of excessive lobbying before the vote. District retail centre status increases the space available for retail development to 25,000square metres, 6,000 more than the site’s current zoning of neighbourhood centre.

The Park Village is being developed by Park Developments Ltd. Mr Gormley wrote to the council to express his concerns about the rezoning last year. A further letter was sent to the council last Friday as part of the final consultation phase for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2010-2016.

In it, the Department of the Environment on behalf of Mr Gormley expressed the Minister’s “serious concern that the council had failed to act on his previous advice and recommendation”.

The rezoning did not accord with the “hierarchy of retail centres in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown”, in the Greater Dublin Area Retail Strategy agreed by all planning authorities. The strategy would be “seriously compromised and undermined” if the rezoning went ahead. The rezoning would attract significant amounts of car-based traffic.

The department asked the council to indicate what steps it intended to take to address the Minister’s concerns.

“Failing a satisfactory response, the Minister will have to strongly consider whether further action is warranted, including the use of powers of direction under the Planning and Development Acts,” the letter said. The powers allow the Minister to order the council not to rezone lands.

THE NEW year will bring good news for motorists with the completion of the M50 upgrade and toll reductions for the Dublin Port Tunnel.

Both the northbound and southbound mainline sections of the M50 will be completed by the end of January, a spokesman for the National Roads Authority (NRA) said yesterday.

Upgrading of a number of junctions on the motorway, including the N2 and N3 junctions, will continue for a number of months but should be completed by Easter, he said.

When completed, all junctions will be free flowing with no traffic lights.

The upgrade, which is costing €1 billion, involves converting the route from two lanes to three and improving major junctions.

Tolls on the tunnel are being reduced to €3 at all times over the Christmas period, from Christmas Day to January 2nd, the NRA has said.

In the new year, tolls are being reduced from €12 to €10 during the morning (6am to 10am) and evening (4 pm to 7 pm) rush-hour periods and from €6 to €3 at all other times. Use of the tunnel remains free for heavy goods vehicles.

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PLANS TO develop Spike Island in Cork Harbour as a major tourist attraction moved a step closer yesterday when an inaugural meeting was held of a special steering committee set up by Cork county manager Martin Riordan to develop the island.

Mr Riordan has said he hopes to open Spike Island to the public in 2010 through the provision of a ferry service, but the long-term hope is to develop the former prison into a major tourist attraction.

The Government transferred ownership of the island, including Fort Mitchel, which was used as a prison, from the Department of Justice to Cork County Council last July to enable the council explore the island’s tourism potential.

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HUNDREDS OF thousands of documents, some dating from the late 19th century, are to be destroyed as part of the Property Registration Authority’s move towards e- conveyancing.

In early 2007 the authority – formerly the Registrar of Deeds and Titles – announced that land certificates were to be abolished by December 31st, 2009, and replaced by an electronic system. Land certificates were introduced in 1892 when the Land Registry was established.

The function of land certificates was to certify the ownership of a particular folio of land. The certificates record all relevant details concerning the ownership of registered land which are also recorded on the land register.

The authority estimates there are about 700,000-800,000 land certificates. Although some are in the possession of property owners, many are held by banks or solicitors as security.

Under section 73 of the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006, banks are required to pass on any land certificates in their possession to the authority before December 31st where they will be destroyed. While this has no legal ramifications for banks or property owners – the property ownership will be recorded electronically and the banks can register a lien on the property – the original documents are to be shredded.

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