Press Release Archives - Page 11 of 15 - Councillor Derek Mitchell

‘I have been concerned about the state of the Historic Building and asked the developer to meet with all the Councillors. It was difficult to get a suitable date for all and his Architect and Planner met the Councillors on Tuesday 6th March before the rescheduled District Meeting’. The developer is keen to start work as soon as possible. They have just submitted the, long awaited, Conservation Plan to the Council together with a Construction Management and Landscaping Plan. They are building 26 houses, 5 of which are in the old…

The La Touche Hotel, the most prominent building in Greystones, is a terrible mess and getting worse recently. There have been so many plans for it over the years but it just keeps getting worse. It is dangerous as it is easy for people to get inside yet dangerous, because of fire damage. I have written the attached letter to the developers to ask him to meet the local Councillors as we are all keen to know what is happening and to insist on progress. There is planning permission for…

In 2009 Irish Rail was about to close the rail bridge to pedestrians between Kilcoole and Newcastle because people had to walk too close to trains for safety as can be seen in the photo. I protested, met their engineers at the bridge and suggested cantilevering a separated pedestrian bridge from the rail bridge. Subsequently they kept the bridge open to pedestrians with restrictions. I am delighted to see that they are now just completing cantilevering a pedestrian path as shown in the photographs. They have also placed a second…

Commercial Rates on business properties in Greystones, Kilcoole & Newcastle are being reduced by 2% for 2018, part of a 5 year plan to reduce them by 10%. This reduction was confirmed at Monday’s budget meeting of the County Council. Rates in the old ‘county area’ were higher than in the 3 ‘town’ areas and these are being equalised over 5 years. The Greystones area has by far the lowest number of people employed locally compared to the other areas and this move will help to make businesses in the…

Cllr Derek Mitchell has objected to the current planning application to reconstruct the most iconic and prominent building in Greystones. Engineers have stated that ‘parts are liable to collapse without warning’. Rebuilding in a matching style will produce a better and safer building. My concern is that once the developer has knocked it down he may refuse to reconstruct it. I have asked that a condition should be that the developer must deposit with the Council enough money to allow the Council to reconstruct it if the developer fails to…

Irish Rail agrees to provide staff to help during any Greystones DART disruption. I found that during DART disruptions in Greystones no reliable information was provided as the station was often unmanned. The electronic station sign conflicted with the ‘Trains Live’ App and there was no announcement. This meant that passengers did not know to take the bus which stopped across the road. I wrote to the Chief Executive and after some reminders he has apologised and agreed to a protocol that if there is disruption they will send staff…

Greystones boardwalk construction advancing well Cllr Derek Mitchell welcomed the rapid construction of the Boardwalk in Greystones Harbour and the protection of the North Beach. The picture shows sections of the Boardwalk which have been lifted into place. On the North Beach 5,000 cu m of shingle was placed in August to compensate for erosion in previous years and rocks were placed to protect the very old town dump. This is being done by the developer as part of the Harbour contract.

Cllr Derek Mitchell (FG) went to a seminar on Dublin bus route redesign which was interesting but theoretical. Detailed proposals will be out in the Autumn which could be a radical redesign across the entire Dublin Bus network ‘I spotted a basic mistake on the  Greystones DART frequency and got it corrected. I had a list of my proposals and some ones collected in a survey which I sent in afterwards’. These included:   ·        Busses on M50 to, Cherrywood, Sandyford, Luas, Dundrum, Citwest, Blanchardstown, Airport. To get people out of cars…