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Disappointing outcome to today's meeting with Dublin City Council
The meeting with DCC was held today in the DCC offices in Coolock. We are very disappointed with the outcome of the meeting and we have now released the following statement.
CLONTARF FLOOD DEFENCE SCHEME
[Our picture shows the CRA/CBA in private discussion following the DCC presentation]
Statement on behalf of Clontarf Residents’ & Business Associations
Clontarf Residents’ & Business Associations today expressed outrage at the decision of Dublin City council to make only minor changes to the controversial Flood Defence & arterial Water Mains project along the 3km stretch of Clontarf promenade.
In a statement issued after a meeting this afternoon with city council officials the Associations accused them of ignoring the expressed wishes of thousands of people throughout Dublin and beyond who are vehemently opposed to the plan.
“We are dismayed and disappointed by the complete arrogance on the part of the city council over this issue. They have refused to listen to the voices of thousands of people who don’t want the Flood Defence scheme in its current proposed format,” the ’Associations said after the meeting.
“Their suggested amendments to the project in no way go far enough for us to accept it. We have been mandated by the people to fight this project in its current format and we will continue to do so,” said Deirdre Tobin, Chairperson of the Residents’ Association.
“The council has ignored the will of the people and in doing so displayed a lack of sensitivity to the area, the people and the local economy there,” said Gus O’Hara, Chairperson of the Clontarf Business Association.
The council received planning permission from An Bord Pleanála in 2008 to construct the Flood Defence + Water mains project, which would rise to 9ft in places. In excess of 5,000 people attended a hastily arranged protest rally at the Wooden Bridge.
The residents association said they received no notification of the city council’s planning application for the project in 2008.
“At an earlier meeting between us, the city council accepted that their communications between them and us was very poor. Yet, after such an admission they still do not want to communicate with the people of Dublin,” added the joint committees.
“This is an internationally renowned amenity much appreciated and valued by people throughout Dublin, the country and abroad, and if this plan goes ahead in its current format it will destroy the vicinity and will be a blight on Clontarf forever. We have appealed to the city council to drop its current plans and engage in a proper consultation process with us,” the statement added.
Both ’Associations will meet in the coming days to consider all its options.
As an addendum to the above statement, it is clear that DCC were using a set of wall and mound heights from 2006 as some sort of benchmark that they were working towards. This may feature in their press statements in the coming hours.
Just for clarity, the CBA & CRA do not accept these 2006 figures. Neither associations were ever consulted on any plans that included these heights. The only heights ever mentioned to the CRA were in 2005 and ranged from 0.6 to 1.2m. The slide to the right is a slide from the DCC presentation. The aim of the slide was to show how far DCC have moved. However, the 1.82M figure shown in the far left column in our view should be 1.2M, therefore still leaving a yawning gap between the height originally mentioned to us (in 2005) and the latest corresponding proposed height of 2.17M. For lovers of imperial measurements, these heights correspond to 3ft 11 inches and 7ft 1inch respectively.
AUDIO INTERVIEWS AFTER THE MEETING: