• Converting first Block to a Primary Medical Centre, including a HSE facility, is great for Greystones, and a good use of this space.
• The developer will complete all marine work by October 2010 and after 110 years of trying to get the harbour sorted out this is great news!
• The developer wants to add 34 homes at the North end taking up 3 acres of the Public Park which will then be 13 acres. The Area Plan has 375 homes but Bord Pleanala took out a block in the now Public Square and which was ‘visually in the way’, leaving 341 homes. I had asked the Oral Hearing to delete that block and build ‘replacement’ homes where Sispar now want to do, out of the way.
• There are considerable changes to parking provision. They also want to increase Commercial space by 800 sq. m. to 6425 sq. m. including the 3,450 sq. m. Medical Centre.
• If Planning permission for the changes is agreed by October the developer will build the Medical Centre, Clubhouses, Public Square completing them by end 2011. (This Square is as large as Smithfield, the largest in Ireland I gather) This is also good news as most public facilities will open then and most hoardings come down. Many had feared that there would be a long delay as Sispar’s contract is to complete them by end 2014. Most housing units will be built later, however this area can be hoarded off without much effect on the Public Areas as it is North of them and out of the way.
• I am supportive of making these changes to make the project move forward. This is a Public Private Partnership and the developer has already built a great harbour so we should agree to this compromise in view of the serious financial situation in the country. The extra houses will hardly be noticed.
• I have concerns about proposed changes to the quality of the public square and to the quantity and layout of car parking on it. This large square will be the focal point of the town and I want to see the original very high quality fittings retained. I will be asking the developer to improve this and move the parking back from the waterfront. I am also asking for some other minor changes.
• It is a great achievement for Greystones Town Council and Sispar to have got this harbour built at virtually no cost to the taxpayer when the rest of the country is stopping. Contrast this to the high-powered Dublin Docklands Authority which has spent over €200m of taxpayers money on its Ringsend site and achieved nothing.