St. Sylvester’s GAA club continue to amass a huge number of signatures in their petition to resist Fingal County Council’s proposed extension of the Bridgefield Car Park in Malahide Castle.
All this, despite my motion in November calling on the council to withdraw from the process given the huge volume of resistance in our community. Having spoken with the Director of Services responsible, it emerged that the primary reason for pursuing this proposal was to generate an income for the Parks Department so that they could pursue other activities, a reason which was most certainly not mentioned at any council meeting.
The club of course should be commended for their work but it does raise the question of why the Council continue to move toward presenting this matter to the full council in January. Certainly, my colleagues in Fine Gael have committed to supporting me in resisting the suggestion and I am certain given the unanimous support of my motion in November that other parties will follow suit.
The proposed enlargement will be rejected, of that I am certain but I am also certain that some additional car parking is required in Malahide and have years of experience of different members of our community asking for such a project to be looked at.
While I have no desire to discommode St. Sylvester’s of one of their prized pitches, bridgefield car park is laid out rather badly and could be greatly improved by the Parks Department without moving one solitary blade of grass. Using the council’s drawings, I have estimated that by removing the central reservations (which would greatly improve vehicular safety) and by relining the car park, an additional 40-60 spaces could be found.
This would mean that those using the facility can park there, despite the fact that at present there are times throughout the day where it is impossible to find an empty space up to and including those busy Saturday mornings!
These measures, or something like it would result in no loss of pitch, no loss of amenity and no parking meters. Three things which I believe are extremely important in Malahide Castle.