St. Mary's Park to get knocked?

wingnut

Just reading in the post about a plan to CPO the whole of the Island Field and knock it, turn it into an upmarket location with apartments and a hotel. Opinions?

It would be nice to see something in the area and it might help alliviate some of the soical issues blighting that part of the city. I wouldn't think the council will get an easy ride from the residents though.

By the way, how many hotels does Limerick need!!!!! We've gone from a handful to lots in the space of a few years.

Amazotheamazing

I know this will be controversial, but I agree completely with the plan. The Island field is actually situated in one of the most beautiful parts of Limerick but yet I imagine 95% of Limerick people will never go there, and with good reason. My brother is currently working there and frankly, it is a disaster area.

They won't need to use loads of CPO's as the council still own 70% of the houses there, and there's still a lot of undeveloped land at the back.

I would to see each resident evaluated on a case by case basis, keep the decent folk and kick the scum out. Give the decent people proper "middle-class" housing and facilities and make them part of the re-generation.

Also, any businesses established there should be allowed run rate free or at reduced rates for anywhere between 5-10 years to allow them get established properly.

Course, this is all dependant on the plan actually going ahead. I really hope it does.

limerick_man

Yeah me too. The island is such an asset.

yayamark

whatare they goin to do with the scum bags?--- move them out to raheen dooradoyle, castletroy?:mad:
what will that achieve?
it will just slowly turn these areas in to places like the island:mad:

Amazotheamazing

yayamark wrote:

whatare they goin to do with the scum bags?--- move them out to raheen dooradoyle, castletroy?:mad:
what will that achieve?
it will just slowly turn these areas in to places like the island:mad:

At the risk of being mischeiveous, I imagine they'll move them towards the other council estates or a new one built somewhere else.

The point is the Island would no longer be a council estate.

ricey

will this happen do?

honestly...

And not everyone in the Island is a scumbag.

yayamark

ricey wrote:

will this happen do?

honestly...

And not everyone in the Island is a scumbag.

i'd agree with u 200%. the only problem i'd have would be with scumbags been gift handed houses in estates where other normal people have taken out huge mortgages of €250000 and the scumbags bringing in their scumbags friends and thus bringing down the price of houses

whoa rant over:p

city girl

"The point is the Island would no longer be a council estate."

Don't you mean to say the Island Field? King's Island is not just a council estate, it encompasses Barrington's Hosp, Absolute Hotel, Locke Bar, St Marys Cathedral, King John's Castle, City Hall, remains of the city walls, Athlunkard street and a whole load of respectable dwellings in both private and public ownership. And yes, agreed, it would be great to see some quality development in what is one of the most interesting areas in Limerick city.

steveon

Wasnt shannon airport orignally planned for this area???

Amazotheamazing

I know not everyone in the Island, or the Island field, is a scumbag but they don't have to be. All it takes is a few vicious families to destroy the place. When there's 16 year old knocking on doors with guns it's a pretty good sign the area is in trouble (happened to the parents of a mate from there).

The key thing is to remove the bad families, keep the good ones and allow proper re-development take place. As it is, most of the housing stock is poorly built and in need of redevelopment, so something will have to be done there anyway, not on the massive scale envisaged in the various articles on archiseek but the council may feel they may just be better off dealing with this issue head on for once and for all.

Also, according to my sources in St. Mary's Park (again just parents of a friend), there's already been people out conducting serveys door to door on how people want the place re-developed.

Yes, I'm deeply cynical that the full plan will be implemented but I'm hopeful something will be done.

Amazotheamazing

steveon wrote:

Wasnt shannon airport orignally planned for this area???

Never heard that, it was originally pencilled in for out by Ballyneety, afaik.

Karmafaerie

Lads, this will never happen.
The city council has brought up the idea a few times and it's been shot down each time.
There's been some €30 allotted for redeveloping the Island field for some 5 years now.
It's still there though, as all the plans keep on being rejected.

Could you imagine the uproar caused by trying to forcibly move more than 100 families.
And it would be impossible to move some to a good area and some to a bad area, as it would be illegal. It would be one or the other. There's no way that they could move all these people to somewhere like Castletroy or Dooradoyle, and it wouldn't be fair to move everyone to Moyross or South Hill.

Trust me, this won't happen in a million years. No more than a dozen or two houses will be knocked.

Amazotheamazing

There's reputedly a lot more money coming down if and when the FitzGerald report is implemented, but you also underestimate just how much developers would love to have a chance to develop that much land near the city centre and on a picturesque stretch of river. At least one developer has already started buying houses there (though he started this policy about 3 years ago). Even the developments on the Abbey river side show that the Island is being slowly developed, this would merely change it from developer led development to some form of public-private led development.

yayamark

Karmafaerie wrote:

Lads, this will never happen.
The city council has brought up the idea a few times and it's been shot down each time.
There's been some €30 allotted for redeveloping the Island field for some 5 years now.
No more than a dozen or two houses will be knocked.

they'll need more than €30

sioda

Shannon airport was always meant to be where it is they put it there in case flying boats were sucessfull thus could land in the lagoon next to the airport

Karmafaerie

sioda wrote:

Shannon airport was always meant to be where it is they put it there in case flying boats were sucessfull thus could land in the lagoon next to the airport

There were definitely plans for the airport to be in county Limerick.
De Velera nixed them in favor of the Shannon options.

bazz26

Rebuilding houses and moving decent people and scumbags to other parts of the city will not fix the problems that St Mary's Park, Moyross, Southill etc have. This merly only transfers the problem to other parts of the city.

Anti social behaviour and unemployment black spots need to be dealt with properly by the national and local governments first.

wingnut

Ya I'll reiterate what many have said here, good idea but the logisitcs are mind boggiling. How do you decide who are scumbags and who not, I think you would have to move the lot. Then you would get the do gooders and all up in arms. While there are a lot of vlie elemets there, there are (some) people who are genuily nice. To be be told you have move and there was no choice would be horrible.

Just a pity the scum as usual ruin it for everyone else.

Karmafaerie

wingnut wrote:

Ya I'll reiterate what many have said here, good idea but the logisitcs are mind boggiling. How do you decide who are scumbags and who not, I think you would have to move the lot. Then you would get the do gooders and all up in arms. While there are a lot of vlie elemets there, there are (some) people who are genuily nice. To be be told you have move and there was no choice would be horrible.

Just a pity the scum as usual ruin it for everyone else.

There are a lot more nice people down there than scumbags.
I spent a lot of time down there growing up, and still have a lot of friends and relatives who live there. The decent people are a hell of a lot more numerous, if unfortunately not as vocal, as the scum that blight the place.

Amazotheamazing

Council plan to bulldoze gangs out of city estate

Radical move to make way for urban centre

AN estate of almost 500 houses which is home to the country's most dangerous criminal gangs could soon be completely levelled to make way for an ultra-modern development.

St Mary's Park in the heart of Limerick city, known locally as the Island Field, is the heartland of the Keane and Collopy gangs who are central to the drugs trade and criminality in the city.

Limerick City Council plans to put radical proposals for the demolition and regeneration of the area before the local authority members by the end of the year. If agreed, all 480 homes in the area could soon be demolished to make way for a new urban centre in Limerick, including around 30 owned by members of the gangs. The demolition proposal follows a recent report into social problems in Limerick by former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald, which proposed the demolition of another 1,000 houses in Southill and Moyross.

Representatives from the Department of the Environment and the city council have already met on several occasions to discuss regeneration of the St Mary's Park area and the plans are at an advanced stage.

Limerick City Council owns the vast majority of the houses in the area, but residents who have bought their own homes will be forced to sell up under a compulsory purchase order.

Senior council official Paul Foley said: "We have engaged the services of Ennis-based Tom McNamara & Partners as consultants to work with Limerick City Council and the department to draft a strategy for the regeneration of St Mary's Park.

Strategy

"It is expected the strategy will be put before the council at the beginning of the autumn and it is envisaged it will be the first of the regeneration schemes to be rolled out in the city," said Mr Foley.

St Mary's Park was built in the 1930s and is surrounded on three sides by water. In recent years, the area has suffered from anti-social behavior, criminal elements and a lack of government funding and state initiatives.

It is understood the consultants will meet with the four local councillors early next month, to gauge their views and to share ideas. Also next month there will be a walkabout with city officials and local residents.

Reports advocating the demolition of the estate and arguing for renovation have in the past been knocked by the Government. However, finance is now available for a massive regeneration of the area.

Barry Duggan

bazz26

Excuse my sceptisim but that sounds like another election promise.

I cannot see where they would put all these families while the new area is being developed.

um7y1h83ge06nx

yayamark wrote:

whatare they goin to do with the scum bags?--- move them out to raheen dooradoyle, castletroy?:mad:
what will that achieve?
it will just slowly turn these areas in to places like the island:mad:

True. It would be political suicide to spread serious violence out to these areas. If my estate where I bought a house last year turns into a potential flashpoint for violence, I'll never, ever give a vote to the politicians that were responsible or the political parties that they are members of.

The council, as dim-witted as they are, are hopefully not that thick.

Tea Leaf

is the heartland of the Keane and Collopy gangs

Only because it was given to them.
The Keanes and the Collopys only rule in minds that are small. The Island wasn't always the way you now say it is and yet people still continue to turn a blind eye unless, of course, it involves property development. Then, all of a sudden, everyone's interested.

After all, wouldn't want the same riff raff in, say, Annacotty now, would we?

I'm holding my tongue here but I shall say very nicely, the reason these areas such as the Island, Moyross, Southill, Weston etc are black spots is because you, the citizen, have allowed them to be.

ninty9er

In principle once all the feuding families are not placed in the same places it should allevite the problems. What would be good would be to shove them into areas where the residents have a reputation for taking no ****.

I think it's too far fetched though...as many of the scumbags currently roaming our streets and locked in our prisons come from very respectable families who are entirely ashamed of their offspring/siblings.

Loathe and all as I am to say this and I have won arguments against it, but there are some people for whom capitol punishment should still exist, not by expensive lethal injection or electrocution but by one swift bgullet to the head. I think their neighbours would appreciate this more than anyone, possibly even more than their victims!!

Liam Byrne

ninty9er wrote:

In principle once all the feuding families are not placed in the same places it should allevite the problems.

Don't think so.....scumbags have cars too.....often bigger and better ones than you and I do, since drugs are lucrative.

What would be good would be to shove them into areas where the residents have a reputation for taking no ****.

Agreed, as long as we're talking an organised approach supported by law-enforcement and court support, and not vigilanteism or the current weak court system that can't seem to put anyone away despite how hard the Gardai work to catch them.

Loathe and all as I am to say this and I have won arguments against it, but there are some people for whom capitol punishment should still exist, not by expensive lethal injection or electrocution but by one swift bgullet to the head. I think their neighbours would appreciate this more than anyone, possibly even more than their victims!!

100% agreed; but again, as long as that bullet was from a Garda authorised to do so, and not a scumbag or, even worse, a frustrated neighbour sick of anti-social and criminal behaviour, since knowing our system they would be in jail for murder within days.....that always pisses me off, y'know.....while we should all take responsibility and accept the consequences of our actions, be they speeding, stealing or whatever-you're-having-yourself, the real inequality in the legal system is how the "once-in-a-lifetime" offenders end up in jail while the scumbags seem to be out on bail or free despite their increasing track record.

ninty9er

Liam Byrne wrote:

Don't think so.....scumbags have cars too.....often bigger and better ones than you and I do, since drugs are lucrative.

My uncle works in the motor trade and many of his customers are unemployed, but without any way of proving ill gotten gains, who is he torefuse to sell a car. I think Fitzgerald hit the nail on the head with a specific branch of CAB for Limerick. I think each of the 5 main cities should have one!

Liam Byrne wrote:

100% agreed; but again, as long as that bullet was from a Garda authorised to do so

Something like "xyz, by order of the DPP, for crimes of gangland criminalty, you will be punished by death at this place here at x time on y day, by method of a single bullte to the head" sound about right.

talkingclock

It is very interesting to see the developement of hate and violence in us towards the scumbags. Now we even on-the-spot execution for those lowlifes is a favorable option.

I have always been a strong oponent towards death penalty. But since this **** is going on in this city i have really strange fantasies how to torture the scum that is crossing my way in the city centre. It goes from to be burned on a stake, drowning and slow suffocation (a garotte!) to bullets first through hands, arms etc to make them suffer as much as possible and let them rot slowly.

Sometimes I think I'm becoming an embittered old man...