As you may be aware, Fingal County Council have been meeting every Tuesday and Wednesday for the last number of weeks to deliberate on the county development plan.
Swords/Malahide Greenbelt:
Several Councillors attempted to zone the little remaining lands between the two towns (between Waterside & Estuary Road) which I am completely opposed to. I am happy to report that after my contribution to the debate, the proposers withdrew their motions.
Motorway Access:
The Holywell estate has since 2005 had M1 traffic passing through it because of the incomplete motorway distributor road linking the M1 to Feltrim Road & Malahide Road (R106). The Council have, at my request placed an objective to ensure that when lands at Airside are developed, the distributor road will be completed. This should see a significant reduction in accidents within Holywell which have resulted in damage to trees & walls due to the sub standard roads within the estate for this volume of traffic.
One Off Housing:
There have been over 70 motions relating to one-off housing within Fingal. The majority of which have been rejected due to non compliance with the existing rural housing policy of the council and the unsuitability of the lands proposed. Of the 60, 24 related to lands considered part of Malahide with a further ten related to the town of Swords.
Moving Schools:
A motion was tabled to rezone lands at St. Oliver Plunkett National School in Malahide as residential from the recommended C.I. or “Community Infrastructure” zoning. This motion was designed to increase the value of the land in a trade with Bovale Developments Limited/Mick Baily so that houses could be built on the Grove Road site and the school relocated to lands beside Wheatfields, Portmarnock. Thankfully, the proposal was withdrawn by Fianna Fail and I have since learnt that the school board of management chairperson has informed parents that they wish to stay in the heart of the community at Grove Road.
The Council have proposed to locate a suitable site for a third National School for Malahide with the Dept of Education & Skills on the western side of Malahide.
Ongoing Meetings:
The plan is ongoing and will finish within the next two to three weeks. You can watch the meetings live or the extensive achieve by visiting http://www.fingalcoco.public-i.tv/core/
We will now move to Baldoyle & Howth, followed by the Airport and finally Dublin 15 before meetings will conclude.
Once this phase of the process is complete, the entire plan will go on public display for the public to submit their views followed by the final round of voting by your councillors in early 2011.
Metro North:
Fine Gael remains committed to this vital project for Fingal, Dublin & Ireland. The initial cost of the project to the tax payer is €200 million and will create 5,000 jobs during the construction process and up to 37,000 jobs (Source: Indecon) in the long term, this has the potential to remove €100 million from the social welfare bill also.
The economic knock on effect for Swords, Malahide, Donabate and surrounding towns cannot be underestimated.