[Article] Council fallout over estate project

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Council fallout over estate project
From:ireland.com
Monday, 13th September, 2004

The management of Dublin City Council has accused its councillors of delaying regeneration plans for one of the city's most notorious housing estates by at least three years, after they rejected a €200 million development plan for the site.

Mr Brendan Kenny, assistant Dublin City manager, also said plans for the regeneration of St Michael's estate in Inchicore were now "dead" after councillors voted unanimously to reject the plan at a meeting last Monday, following a concerted campaign by local groups.

Locals were concerned the plan would swamp the area with private apartments, and would fail to provide adequate and suitable social and affordable housing.

The plan provides for 850 apartments in blocks up to seven storeys high, 550 of them private and the remainder social and affordable, along with shops, sports and community facilities.

It would be carried out by a private developer, who would share the profits with the city council.

Mr Kenny, who is in charge of the council's housing section, told The Irish Times the current plan was all that was on offer, and that council staff would not be drawing up a compromise plan.

"This is hugely disappointing and frustrating," he said of last weeks's council decision.

"As far as we're concerned it's dead and we have no plan at all now . . . We're not prepared to spend any more money on it."

He claimed the project would help transform the Inchicore area, which had suffered from a lack of development in recent years.

Mr Kenny's comments have greatly angered local activists however, who accused the city council staff of arrogance and ignoring the opinion of the local community.

Fine Gael Cllr Catherine Byrne, who lives in the area and who proposed last Monday's motion to reject the plan, accused the city council staff of "holding to ransom" locals into accepting the plan by refusing to consider alternatives. Accusing Mr Kenny and the city council of failing to listen to locals' concerns about the plan, she said: "There was a serious lack of consultation about this plan.

"It was just planked on the table. It's a great plan for developers, but not for the people who live in St Michael's and Inchicore."

She said the proposal would be "disastrous" for Inchicore and that the private apartments "aren't homes where people rear their children and stay".

This is the second regeneration plan for St Michael's to encounter difficulties. Built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the estate of 350 flats and houses was devastated by the heroin epidemic and social problems of the 1980s. In 1998 it was decided to demolish the existing housing and rebuild new council housing on the 14-acre site. However, in 2001 this plan was abandoned after the Department of the Environment refused funding for it.

Most of the residents have now been moved out of the estate, with just 55 of the houses and flats remaining occupied. Work has already begun on demolishing the old housing blocks.

This abandoned 2001 plan is now favoured by community groups, who are looking for a mixed apartment and housing development, with a majority of social and affordable housing.

The city council has rejected this, stating that current planning guidelines require high density development in city centre areas, while experience had shown that large council housing estates do not work and act as a magnet for social problems.

Mr Kenny said the apartments would also provide hundreds of people the opportunity of city centre living as opposed to commuting.