Community Facilities Archives - Page 5 of 8 - Councillor Derek Mitchell

Public Rights of Way need new legal standing

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The Courts have ruled that there is not a Public Right of Way on Mr. Walkers land in Enniskerry. This has taken 8 years and cost a huge amount of legal fees. There needs to be a simple system to establish and maintain these instead of the present system of uncertainty and high legal fees. In 1950 England and Wales put through laws to get these listed and imposing a degree of responsibility on Local Authorities to maintain and signpost them. We need similar legislation here so that these are…

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Cllr. Mitchell welcomes progress on Coast Guard Station

Posted by | Community Facilities, Greystones, Harbour | No Comments

Building the Coast Guard station at Greystones new harbour has been delayed 3 years by bureaucratic wrangling. On Monday the Minister of State for Finance, Brian Hayes T.D. met Greystones Town Council, Simon Harris, Andrew Doyle and Billy Timmins T.D’s at the harbour. He undertook to clear these issues and ensure that an invitation to Tender was issued in 2012, so that building would proceed in 2013 once the expected Coast Guard funding was in place. ‘I welcome the commitment to sorting this out; this will help in completing all…

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Council should make more efficient use of staff so Rates can be reduced.

Posted by | Community Facilities, Local Business | No Comments

At the annual budget meeting of Wicklow County Council Cllr Derek Mitchell asked for a wages breakdown. This showed that the €16m spent on revenue wages was only being reduced by 1% while the Capital items wages reduced 25% to €1m. The Manager explained that capital projects had dried up and staff had been transferred to Revenue items. ‘I believe that the Council should have an efficiency gain of 5%, given the reduction in staff numbers, and this would allow a Rates reduction of 6%. We are always being told…

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Kilcoole Footpath to go Ahead on Sea Road

Posted by | Community Facilities | 355 Comments

Cllr Derek Mitchell has welcomed the news that the footpath from the village to Holywell is to be completed shortly. This path was part of the planning conditions of Holywell and had been built past a couple of existing houses leaving a gap at the Beachdale green area. It has just been agreed that the path will be laid over this area and a temporary wooden fence erected. The Council has agreed to erect some attractive stone pillars for this fence when further money becomes available from Holywell Development contributions….

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Greystones to Wicklow walk study welcomed

Posted by | Community Facilities, Wicklow | 591 Comments

Greystones to Wicklow Town Walk study welcomed Wicklow County Council is to hire 2 Engineering Interns to do a study of how to improve this walk. Cllr Derek Mitchell welcomed this and said we need to improve this walk to make it more accessible to locals and tourists. When I was Cathoirleach, 3years ago, I set this as an objective and am glad something is finally happening. This seaside walk, over 20 km long with no road crossings and through a nature reserve is very attractive, and has a train…

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NAMA gives some hope Greystones Harbour Medical Centre will be started

Posted by | Community Facilities, Greystones, Harbour, Local Business | 11 Comments

NAMA has replied to Greystones Town Council and stated that they are currently discussing funding for Phase 2 with the developer. While they give no indication of a decision they ‘are expecting that the matter will be brought to a conclusion within weeks’. The letter was in reply to a letter from the Town Council which was also pursued by Ann Ferris T.D. I am pleased that this is being brought to a conclusion after some years of delay and hope for a favourable decision so that construction can start…

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Mitchell demands meeting to progress Coastguard Station

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The Coastguard station at Greystones Harbour has been planned for 4 years and a site and special slipway has been completed for them. However the Office of Public Works, who will pay for the building, have been dithering about signing a contract for 3 years. For legal procurement reasons they now state, in a reply to Simon Harris TD, that the Council is dealing with this. However nothing has happened there. We are all pressing for completion of the Public Square and it would make sense to build the Coastguard…

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Council votes for 34 extra houses in Greystones Harbour Project.

Posted by | Community Facilities, Greystones, Harbour | No Comments

At its meeting on the 6th December Wicklow County Council voted by 13 to 4 to approve changes to the layout of houses and an increase of 34 in the Greystones Harbour Plan. I welcome this as this should give added confidence and enable phase 2, the clubs, Medical Center, 11 apartments and public square be completed and the hoardings come down within 15 months.

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Government criticised for long delays in Rent Supplement Approvals

Posted by | Community Facilities, Local Work, Priorities | No Comments

People who need Rent Supplement to provide themselves with rental accommodation are having to wait over 16 weeks for this to be approved. This is a ridiculous delay as those who need this, have no money for accommodation. I am aware of a family who is waiting this long and I asked Billy Timmins TD to ask the Minister for Health about it. The HSE replied that a Centralised unit was set up for Wicklow in December 09 and there was a large delay but extra staff were being assigned…

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