The Irish Times Observation

Blandpebbles

Tongue in cheek but pretty accurate.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/a-grey-orwellian-moment-in-greystones-1.3181606?mode=amp

Wicklow Will

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Tongue in cheek but pretty accurate.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/a-grey-orwellian-moment-in-greystones-1.3181606?mode=amp

Spot on, I'd say!

2011

Yes, it is sad to see the way Greystones is changing.

FirstIn

I agree. They've made a right mess of it. The town we loved so well , as the song goes. Indeed, village we loved so well.

pixbyjohn

Aye indeed, so many changes, we now have double decker buses going through our village. We have supermarkets serving our ever expanding population and also employing lots of people. The fields where we once played cowboys & indians are now full of houses where families live. We have half hourly Dart trains taking people to and from work/schools/colleges. We have more doctors than the 3 we used to have. We have 6 chemists and 3 fish & chip shops. Lots of changes to be sure. There are so many changes but then again we are only 30 kilometres from O'Connell Bridge in our capital city of Dublin.

jpd

Spot on, Pixbyjohn

loyatemu

whatever about the harbour (which has been discussed ad nauseum), the Marina Village housing development is very disappointing in design terms. It is relentlessly beige and makes no concessions to it's marine location. It could be in Leixlip, or Carlow or anywhere.

Compare it to the colourfully painted houses around the old harbour or even the newer apartment block where St Kilian's Hall used to be - MV is just really drab in comparison.

FirstIn

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Aye indeed, so many changes, we now have double decker buses going through our village. We have supermarkets serving our ever expanding population and also employing lots of people. The fields where we once played cowboys & indians are now full of houses where families live. We have half hourly Dart trains taking people to and from work/schools/colleges. We have more doctors than the 3 we used to have. We have 6 chemists and 3 fish & chip shops. Lots of changes to be sure. There are so many changes but then again we are only 30 kilometres from O'Connell Bridge in our capital city of Dublin.

Surely John you remember Loves and O'Donoghues? Do you remember when you'd walk down the street and see many people you knew. When you could drive through the village at all times without being stuck in traffic. The hotel. The harbour the way it was before it was neglected and let fall in to disrepair. I never remember a shortage of doctors and chemists or chippers. Actually Jokers and Joe Sweeneys are here a long long time.

Spanish Eyes

Greystones is a lovely spot alright. For a visit on the DART for the day and a bite in the Happy Pear (they have migrated to OMG Clondalkin also remember.) So Westside people have access now too.

I know residents will complain about the marina development, but honestly you should be so happy to be living in such a great spot by the sea. Mistakes were made, but it is not the worst I have seen.

Enjoy.

Cerco

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Greystones is a lovely spot alright. For a visit on the DART for the day and a bite in the Happy Pear (they have migrated to OMG Clondalkin also remember.) So Westside people have access now too.

I know residents will complain about the marina development, but honestly you should be so happy to be living in such a great spot by the sea. Mistakes were made, but it is not the worst I have seen.

Enjoy.

I agree with you, a nice place to visit even if we no longer have a hotel in the the town. Also still a nice place to live.
Sadly it could have been and indeed was, so much better.
We have been badly served by our planners in so many respects.

Don't Chute!

FirstIn wrote: »

Surely John you remember Loves and O'Donoghues? Do you remember when you'd walk down the street and see many people you knew. When you could drive through the village at all times without being stuck in traffic. The hotel. The harbour the way it was before it was neglected and let fall in to disrepair. I never remember a shortage of doctors and chemists or chippers. Actually Jokers and Joe Sweeneys are here a long long time.

Yep we should close Greystones now. No more new people allowed. What's the cut off point by the way? Anyone in after the Ninties is out? Eighties? Seventies? Or is it just everyone who came after you?

Blandpebbles

Don't Chute! wrote: »

Yep we should close Greystones now. No more new people allowed. What's the cut off point by the way? Anyone in after the Ninties is out? Eighties? Seventies? Or is it just everyone who came after you?

Someone is a bit tetchy about being a blow in

My opinion, the town has had some good developments and some bad. I appreciate it more now than when I was a teenager.

There are extremes between the bobble hat cappuccino queues at the Happy Pear and the 'oh I am from old Greystones' brigade. Somewhere in between is a nice place with ok people.

I understand the need for new housing but perhaps this is the saddest point as I see old fields populated by bland housing and poor planning.

The village of Greystones is no longer that is the price of progress.

Annasopra

Honestly the poorest planning I see is building Charlesland and Eden Gate on 1 side of the town and Templecarrig/Greystones ET/Gaelscoil on the other. The planners created massive unnecessary traffic flows and traffic congestion.

FirstIn

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

Honestly the poorest planning I see is building Charlesland and Eden Gate on 1 side of the town and Templecarrig/Greystones ET/Gaelscoil on the other. The planners created massive unnecessary traffic flows and traffic congestion.

I agree. It's nuts. Most of the children in the town at one end and they put 3 new schools at the other end. Crazy.

Plenty of green fields to build on near charlesland too with a dual carriageway to serve them. I've heard the students are bused to shoreline for some activities, wouldn't it be so much handier having that facility right next to the schools.

The result of thes awful desicions -
Traffic congestion through the town.
Lots of parents driving when their children could be walking a few minutes down the road to school.

2011

Don't Chute! wrote: »

Yep we should close Greystones now. No more new people allowed.

Its not about "closing" Greystones.
It is about having descent planning.

What's the cut off point by the way? Anyone in after the Ninties is out? Eighties? Seventies? Or is it just everyone who came after you?

The "cut off point" will be when every square inch of available land that planning can be obtained for is built on.

jpd

Of course, if the population of Ireland stopped increasing, we wouldn't need more houses.

But as that doesn't seem a reasonable assumption, we have to plan to build more houses - but, obviously NIMBY

Edgar_Murl

loyatemu wrote: »

whatever about the harbour (which has been discussed ad nauseum), the Marina Village housing development is very disappointing in design terms. It is relentlessly beige and makes no concessions to it's marine location. It could be in Leixlip, or Carlow or anywhere.

Compare it to the colourfully painted houses around the old harbour or even the newer apartment block where St Kilian's Hall used to be - MV is just really drab in comparison.

The Marina is not yet complete, so making a judgement about the quality of the design now it is like commenting on a half-carved statue.

2011

Edgar_Murl wrote: »

The Marina is not yet complete, so making a judgement about the quality of the design now it is like commenting on a half-carved statue.

I'm not sure that more of the same will enhance the beauty of the harbor.

fortwilliam

A major problem now arising is the additional traffic on the Blacklion/Windgates road as more and more houses are added to the population.
Cars leaving Greystones travelling to/from Bray/N11
If every house adds 1.5 cars each morning & evening trying to squeeze into the 7.00-8.00am slot to get to work, it only takes a population of 3,600 cars (2,400 houses) to have back to back (1 car per second) for the whole hour.
This simply means people cannot cross the road, pull out of a driveway, Etc. for that hour.
It is a relativity small road carrying far too much traffic and things are only getting worse.

*I am aware there is a link road from Charlesland to the N11, but the only people who use that are those who live in East/South Charlesland.

loyatemu

Edgar_Murl wrote: »

The Marina is not yet complete, so making a judgement about the quality of the design now it is like commenting on a half-carved statue.

the MV houses are built and people are living in them, I think they're finished.

fortwilliam wrote: »

A major problem now arising is the additional traffic on the Blacklion/Windgates road as more and more houses are added to the population.
Cars leaving Greystones travelling to/from Bray/N11
If every house adds 1.5 cars each morning & evening trying to squeeze into the 7.00-8.00am slot to get to work, it only takes a population of 3,600 cars (2,400 houses) to have back to back (1 car per second) for the whole hour.
This simply means people cannot cross the road, pull out of a driveway, Etc. for that hour.
It is a relativity small road carrying far too much traffic and things are only getting worse.

*I am aware there is a link road from Charlesland to the N11, but the only people who use that are those who live in East/South Charlesland.

there are long term plans for another link road from Redford to the N11 junction 9. The solution isn't more roads though (that applies for the whole of the greater Dublin area).

REFLINE1

loyatemu wrote: »

Edgar_Murl wrote: »

The Marina is not yet complete, so making a judgement about the quality of the design now it is like commenting on a half-carved statue.

the MV houses are built and people are living in them, I think they're finished.

fortwilliam wrote: »

A major problem now arising is the additional traffic on the Blacklion/Windgates road as more and more houses are added to the population.
Cars leaving Greystones travelling to/from Bray/N11
If every house adds 1.5 cars each morning & evening trying to squeeze into the 7.00-8.00am slot to get to work, it only takes a population of 3,600 cars (2,400 houses) to have back to back (1 car per second) for the whole hour.
This simply means people cannot cross the road, pull out of a driveway, Etc. for that hour.
It is a relativity small road carrying far too much traffic and things are only getting worse.

*I am aware there is a link road from Charlesland to the N11, but the only people who use that are those who live in East/South Charlesland.

there are long term plans for another link road from Redford to the N11 junction 9. The solution isn't more roads though (that applies for the whole of the greater Dublin area).

Which plans are these? is it in the national transport plan? genuine question

2011

loyatemu wrote: »

the MV houses are built and people are living in them, I think they're finished.

The building work around the harbor is far from finished. The construction work for many more houses and apartment blocks has not even started yet. We can expect dramatic changes over the next few years.

loyatemu

REFLINE1 wrote: »

Which plans are these? is it in the national transport plan? genuine question

it's on the county development plan, but it's a long term aim rather than something that will be done in the next couple of years.

Road will run from somewhere around Redford to join up with the Ballydonagh Rd (which I expect will be upgraded) and then onto the Glenview junction on the N11. Something along these lines: