At today’s Oral Hearing into the proposed sewage treatment plant, I am making this presentation focusing on the water quality aspects of the proposal. I have recently become aware of the important biodiversity along the sewer route at Ballymun and I am glad to have the opportunity to include the Ballymun Wildlife Group’s Report on Biodiversity at Northpoint in my submission.
A South Fingal Transport Study has been carried out for the Council. (This is in fulfilment of an objective in the County Development Plan which specified the Study would include public consultation; unfortunately the public consultation hasn’t happened.)
The Study contains strong recommendations about prioritising walking, cycling and public transport in the area, and will be discussed at a Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Policy Committee meeting on Monday 28th.
At the moment Fingal has no public drinking water fountains. This is in contrast to the situation in many other urban areas across Europe, where drinking water fountains are provided in public streets and parks. I raised it in the Howth/Malahide Area Committee in March and June, and this month I raised it at the full Council, as did Cllr. Barry Martin.
On foot of my motion, the Council established a policy of providing drinking water fountains in parks, on streets, and at beaches. The first step is the provision of two water fountains in the Howth Malahide Area in the next few weeks.
***Bus Connects consultation today Monday 17th September 2pm to 8pm Grand Hotel Malahide***
***Submission deadline 28th September www.busconnects.ie***
My draft submission is below. I would be interested in any feedback, positive or negative before I submit it.
1.Howth to city centre along the coast
An Bord Pleanála has written to say that Irish Water omitted documents from its application. There will be a further public consultation until 17th October. Information on this is at http://www.greaterdublindrainage.com/2018/09/07/additional-statutory-consultation-for-gdd/ . My previous submission is here.
Many people responded to the public consultation in 2015. Unfortunately, it seems as if those responses weren’t taken into account. Is there a document summarising the content of the input received to the consultation and IÉ’s responses to the submissions?You seem to have reduced services to some areas more than in the proposal you put to consultation. It is simply not correct to say that “Howth Junction, Clongriffin and Portmarnock will be served by fewer weekday Northern Commuter services”. The timetable which has been put online shows no diesel services stopping at these stations. There’s a considerable amount of irritation at the fact that so many trains will now be passing through Portmarnock, Clongriffin and Howth Junction without stopping and that the travel patterns people have developed in reliance on the services will not be disrupted.
My submission to An Bord Pleanála focuses in particular on the inadequate assessment of the proposed effluent outfall near Ireland’s Eye and the lack of evaluation of tertiary treatment of the effluent and a longer sea outfall. Continue reading
Strategic Housing Development Section
An Bord Pleanála
64 Marlborough St.
Dublin D01 V902
Re: Case reference: PL06F.300879
A chairde,
I refer to the above development and would like to make the following observations:
1. SHD process is not compliant with the Aarhus Convention
The decision-making process in the Strategic Housing Development
category is contrary to the Aarhus Convention, in particular as it
fails to meet the requirement of Article 6(4) to “provide for early
public participation, when all options are open and effective public
participation can take place.”
The process established for Strategic Housing Developments ends up,
as in this instance, pre-determining and pre-deciding choices and
decisions about many elements of the development before any public
participation happens. That this is so is evident from the record in
the planning file of pre-application discussions with both Fingal
County Council and An Bord Pleanála. The fact that there is no appeal
from this decision makes this failing considerably more significant
from the point of view of the public’s ability to have an impact on
the final decision and the quality of the decision-making process.
Fingal County Council is looking for input on identifying bathing waters in Fingal. Many heavily used bathing waters in the County are not recognised and therefore the water quality is not tested in accordance with the Bathing Water Directive. Untested waters include Balscadden Beach (below)
High Rock Malahide (below)
and Broadmeadow Estuary, intensively used for dinghy sailing and kayaking.
Please respond to the consultation if you swim in any of these areas or in any other area.