Dublin City Council officials held a meeting in Scoil Mhuire on Gilford Road on the evening of 31st March last, to announce that Sandymount has been selected for a ‘Village Design Statement’, to enhance the development of the area with the help of the community.

The discussion was opened by Eileen Brady, the Local Area Manager for Dublin City Council’s South East Area of Dublin along with John Murphy the Deputy City Planner and Patricia Hyde also from Planning. Eileen Brady introduced City Councillors Dermot Lacey of Labour and Paddy McCartan of Fine Gael. Also present was Alison Harvey a Planner with the Heritage Council who was involved with a Village Design statement for Lucan.

Ms. Brady referred to a map for the Sandymount Area with a red dotted line from Church Avenue to St. John’s Road between the DART railway and along the footpath of Strand Road but not including the Beach or the road.
Eileen Brady said that she hoped the meeting could agree a boundary zone with the audience and maybe set up a Steering group of say 10 or so to put together a brief with the Council planners.

Deputy City Planner John Murphy, who had until recently worked for the City Council on getting the Poolbeg Incinerator approved, referred to the map and asked that the meeting get to an agreement as to the boundary extent of Sandymount and opened up the meeting to the floor.

Mrs. Lorna Kelly of the Sandymount and Merrion Residents’ Association, SAMRA, said that for the people of Sandymount the Strand up to the Merrion gates was always considered Sandymount. Ms. Kelly then showed other maps that had been used by SAMRA in the local area plan previously.

In response to a request from a resident asking that Sandymount be classified as an Architectural Conservation Area, ACA, Mr. Murphy said that the extent of the area proposed was too large for that type of designation.
Alison Harvey was then introduced by Eileen Brady as the Planning Officer with Heritage Council. “You tell us what you want in the brief and that will be what’s looked at,” she said. Minister Gormley was keen on Village Design Statements, she said.

Gary Scafe of Claremont Road, complained about the issuing of a leaflet about the Incinerator along with the notice for the VDS meeting and said that looking at the area considered in the plan issued it was unreal to talk about improvement for Sandymount without considering the Waste Water Plant, the Incinerator, traffic, high rise buildings, proposed roads and so on.

Councillor Dermot Lacey said that there was huge mistrust about the planning process and said in his view that we have an un-democratic planning system that needed fundamental reform. He said that this was an opportunity to participate in the development of the area and that it would not make things worse and might make thing better and encouraged the community to take part in the process.

Local Architect John O’Neill asked for clarification as to what exactly a Village Design Statement is compared to a Local Area Plan. Alison Harvey replied that when looking at a Local Area Plan one is looking at land use primarily, whereas with a Village Design Statement aspects of what make an area important, buildings and approaches into the Village all of the things that make the character of the area special and not just a matter of land zoning.

Councillor Paddy McCartan said that he supported Lorna Kelly’s idea of having an Architectural Conservation Area around the village centre.

Joe McCarthy said he supported the idea of a Conservation area for the village centre and said that the village area should go to the seashore. He pointed out that the Martello tower was not included.

Mr. McCarthy said that the area shown in the map should have included the Beach and made the point that the large developments on the Irish Glass Bottle site, the Fabrizia site, the Incinerator, the new Dublin Dockland EIS for high rise development and the Barrage proposed now by the City Council were all within our hinterland and will have a dramatic effect on the village centre and must be included in the scope and terms of reference of the VDS Steering Group, “If there is anything that this VDS should address it is to protect our quality of life here.”

He said that “we are put to the pin of our collar in this community dealing with the vicissitudes planted on us by Dublin City Council. He said the VDS distracted us from the major problems caused by the other proposals. This was applauded by the gathering.

Catherine Cavendish said that the architect John O’Neill had prepared a Village Plan some ten years ago and she believed that had won a prize and improvements were made around the footpaths but nothing was heard of it ever since.

The meeting concluded after it was suggested that it would be fairer to call a more widely advertised meeting that would include more members of the public. So keep an eye out for notices on the notice board in the Green for the next meeting.

Left: Just where are the boundaries of Sandymount?