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LOCALS ARE HOPING the launch of a project to build over 8,000 new homes at Clonburris in West Dublin will put an end to the site being used for anti-social behaviour.
Plans for a new suburb, between Clondalkin and Lucan, and along the Dublin-Kildare rail route, are to be published this month, as the Irish Times first reported on Monday.
Cairn Homes, the largest landowner at the Clonburris Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), said it would be in a position to start building there next year.
The Clonburris lands cover 280 hectares. Different areas are in the ownership of various different private developers while around a third of the site is under the management of South Dublin County Council.
The area has become a black spot for anti-social behaviour in recent years – and locals reported a spike in cars being rallied and burnt-out by groups of young men over the summer.
Horses were also being left on the land – and the My Lovely Horse Rescue group said its volunteers had been terrorised by having cars driven at them in a threatening manner when they went to feed and water the neglected animals earlier this summer.
According to the Council, 86 burnt-out cars have been removed from the site since the start of the year. 27 cars were removed on one single day in August. The local authority said the lands had recently been secured “to detract from the suitability of the location for the abandonment of horses and vehicles”.
Independent Councillor Francis Timmons said this week that barricades had been placed around entrances, and that – although there had been a number of attempts – no vehicles had been able to access the area in recent weeks. The horses had also been cleared off the site, he said.
“That’s part of the reason it makes sense to build on it,” Timmons said.
“This could be a great development, it really could help solve a lot of the anti-social problems. But if it’s not done right it could be a disaster.
We want to learn from the mistakes of bad planning and avoid the sort of problems that have happened in other areas in the past.
Many local representatives have given news of the planned development a guarded welcome – but cautioned that issues like transport and housing density must be addressed.
“One of my big issues is concerns around transport,” Timmons said.
It’s a lot of houses to put into the area without improved transport – but we can work through that with the Council.
The plan for the housing would be put out to public consultation next month, and councillors will be able to put down motions on how to proceed, Timmons said.
“If this is to be done in a way that also benefits the existing communities of Clondalkin and Lucan then it must be done right,” Sinn Féin councillor Mark Ward said.
A comprehensive public consultation process is the key to this development and I will be demanding that the Council conduct this as thoroughly as possible.
All stakeholders from the communities of Clondalkin and Lucan should be approached and given a complete outline of the plans to allow them to make concise submissions.
Ward said an affordable housing scheme should be included in the plans, and agreed with Timmons’ assessment that the Council needed to ensure past mistakes weren’t repeated.
The plan must ensure that housing is developed in parallel with infrastructure such as transport, amenities and schools, and commercial needs are met.
Former Labour TD Joanna Tuffy said a national affordable housing scheme should be introduced in time for the development of Clonburris.
“Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2015 requires that a percentage of the houses built at Clonburris will be Social and Affordable Housing,” said Tuffy.
However an affordable housing element might be absent unless the government steps in and implements a national affordable housing scheme without delay. There was previously a national affordable housing scheme in place but this was discontinued.
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Theres that magical phrase again “Social Housing”. So while you are out at work 5 or 6 days a week, up to your eyes in debt with a huge mortgage, only a few quid in your pocket, Tomo & Deco next door are polishing off another crate of Dutch Gold while living off the taxpayer for the rest of their lives. Mixing private & social housing together doesn’t work. It never has. It never will.
@Martin: You forgot to mention selling all the nice furniture they got free on eBay and buying cheaper stuff.
@Gillian Weir Scully: that happens?
@Martin:
You want dutch gold, they want a mortgage, you could easily swap.
If life is so good on the bread line you could join them.
Its probably the most childish of all comments i read on here for a long time.
Local authority houses are rental properties and if you do the figures pay for themselves over a period of 25 years.
It removes the need for over priced rent suppliment to private landlords and the lower rents allow more money spent locally which creates jobs
@Stephen Maher: Martin can hold his head high and be a role model to his children. The vermin that chose a life on welfare can’t.
@Stephen Maher: d
@Stephen Maher: don’t forget that nearly half the rent paid to private landlords returns to the the State as tax on rental income making it perhaps cheaper than social housing with all the accompanying costs of maintenance.
@Michael Geraghty: The problem is they couldn’t give two f’s.
This is a disaster re transport in an area already drowning due to poor planning and infrastructure. Adamstown building has started again and traffic is on increase with no additional transport options. Heavily reliant on cars to get around.
Schools in area at capacity and amenities? What are they? Come live in Lucan to experience this for yourself.
@Amanda O’Sullivan: try living outside of Dublin with no public transport or infrastructure ya poor creature
@Amanda O’Sullivan: there are train stations at Adamstown and Fonthill as well as Kishogue (currently closed but facilities in place to reopen) less than 1.5 miles apart all with park and ride facilities. Buses, Bus Lanes, Cycle Lanes, close to N4, N7, M50 and Outer Ring Road. This is a well served area for public transport. What do you want from a public transport system? A train to your door at whatever time of day/night you want? The area is well served with transport
@Amanda O’Sullivan: Traffic is everywhere in Dublin. You get used to it
@Amanda O’Sullivan: what you need is a helicopter
@Shay: don’t talk through your hoop them two train station have about 300 Park and ride spaces between them and that’s supposed to service 3 massive areas , and on top of that most of them car spaces are taken up first thing by people who are traveling from outside Dublin because the parking is free. All the roads you have mentioned are chockablock in the morning and the evenings , forgot the M50 for a moment if there’s a crash or pile up on the N4 the knock on effect Is felt all the way back to people trying to get out of their estates in Lucan alone. I do agree that the bus service is good but not enough on it own . So yes there should be a train / Lucas that will service the area better .
@Jamie: take your own advice then and get a helicopter . Poor little snowflake
@Hoof Hearted: I have one
@Jamie: I don’t think he was talking about going to argos to buy one.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: Boom ! Lol
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: you obviously don’t hoof
@Nucky: you’re talking crap now, Adamstown station park and ride is always empty, never a car in it, plenty of spaces in fonthill everyday too. That is fact
The feral scrotes have reached their adult age and want their “gaff”that they are “entitled” to as the previous generations before them……and so the cycle continues…..while the poor hard working man looks on with envy.
@ballbreaker: where’s the violin
@ballbreaker
If having no job and reting a council house out of your €188 per week is so cushy, why dont you give up work and do it?
@john doe: i can tell ya one thing for sure….after all my bills are paid….i have no where near 188 a week left over….bearing in mind all the extra benefits that go with that
Awful eyesore and shame to see this green space not utilised for decades. Hopefully the development will be successful and enhance the area
@Shay: sounds like a delightful place the locals will be so friendly and welcoming
@Jamie: Just the place for a nice stroll with your dog on a early morning walk.
@Shay: So are they choosing areas to develop by how anti social areas are?
@Gillian Weir Scully: how would I know? I’m not in planning department of council. All I said was it’s an eyesore and a waste in its current form and hope it enhances the area when it’s developed. How would I know the criteria for selection of areas for development. Troll someone else
@Alan Scott: just make sure you’ve had a tetanus shot lately
Jaysus, I thought that was a park-n-ride facility. Anyone know where they took me car?
That map is brutal. Could be anywhere.
@Brian O’Donnell: it does give the name of the location on the bottom right what more do you want a post code?
@Brian O’Donnell: well there’s no sheep or tractors so that should be a big hint
I see they are keeping the plan for the huge mosque at the foxbourgh end out of the media for the moment.wonder why?
Class part of town obviously
Rathfarnmham and terenure are crying out for some social housing and are being denied. Tallaght and clondalkin are getting it all while all the rest get are nice compactor bins and grass verges patrolled by the garda
Sounds like such a charming area to live in…
@Karen Doyle: too frail to live there?
The main point to notice here is the developers actually want the density lowered. There used to be plans for 10,000 homes, now it’s 8,000. Shows how dysfunctional things are in Ireland, it’s usually the opposite and developers want to increase density. They must figure there’s more money to be made from semi-d’s. In any other country the planners would require minimum levels of density in such a vital area.
The picture of those burnt out cars sums up the Labour Party, thrashed and burned!
Hopefully the remnants of the Liebour Party will be safely deposited into the nearest junk yard shortly!
I will never vote for those charlatans again!
@Jarlath Murphy: so then AAA-PBP??
@Malvolio32: Whatever floats your boat!
@Martin: sounds like a really charming place to live
@Karen Doyle: The horses and the burnt out cars are a dead giveaway of the type of person thats going to qualify for this Social Housing…
Sounds like a lovely place to buy an overpriced house.
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