Greystones North Beach will be closed for protection works until the 19^th August. 5,000 cu m. of shingle beach nourishment is being imported and placed on the beach.

The boulders protecting the old dump have been shifted by the waves at the North end and the photo shows where 25 boulders have been imported to reinforce it.

In September the Cliff Walk will be rerouted through the construction site which will be smoother and an improvement. The present walk via the beach is rough and difficult underfoot.

Commercial Fishing pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Comparison to Greystones

Commercial fishing boat problems in Greystones:

• Moorings only 8 months a year. Difficulty insuring vessels?
• Store tenders in huts.
• Lift to waters edge.
• Row to moored fishing boat and climb up.
• Difficult to load from a small boat.
• Load from pier, install crane and no power, no power or water on pier.
• Need skilled/insured crane operator in public space. In DL can be lifted from deck to pier by hand.
• Where park van. Pier too narrow. Access control for vehicles. Pay parking.
• Dun Laoghaire loads of boxes, diesel, old nets on pier. Seagulls and droppings. Houses are much nearer in Greystones.
• Cost of maintaining swing mooring.

It’s not going to work.

Some people who fish off Greystones use this Dun Laoghaire pier to load/unload/moor/park vans. This internal pier is 13.5 m wide (Greystones 7.5m) and much lower, the tops of boats being above the pier level. In Greystones it is at least 5m higher as it has been designed as a promenading pier so that people can see over the sea defences. This makes loading/unloading much more difficult and increases the danger of falling.

In order to separate the vans from people the DL pier is fenced off allowing a 2m strip for pedestrians and 11.5m for vans/net and fishing box/diesel storage etc. A significant amount of ropes etc are trip hazards on the pier edge. This fencing off will be difficult to achieve on the much narrower Greystones Pier.

There is a strong smell of fish and diesel on the pier in DL. The pier is stained with oil. Also seagulls tugging at the fish boxes and droppings everywhere. The nearest homes are 300m plus away and the smell had declined at that distance. In Greystones the homes will be about 100m away and will be much more affected by smell. In DL the marina is well away and not much affected by seagull droppings. In Greystones it is very close.

The inner harbour in DL is reasonably calm in storms. The moorings laid in Greystones will only be safe for 8 months. The cost each year of getting divers to inspect, raise and lay them will be €6,600. Charging a third of this to each fisherman will be expensive compared to DL which charges about €800 a year to berth alongside. There will still be the problem of the remaining 4 months and poor or no unloading facilities.

‘This is a great facility for adults and children and will encourage more use of the sea’

Cllr Derek Mitchell asked about the water shortages in Greystones the last 2 Springs when silica feeding algae occurred. ‘I have been very concerned that the large town of Greystones has had the water cut off at night and have been trying to get some answers and a written plan prepared for 6 months. It was explained that there was always enough water in the Main pipe but it did not flow adequately through the short connector pipe into the town’s reservoir on Blackberry Lane. Urgent measures such as installing a pump are currently being considered to try to improve it by next Spring.

The problem about the approximately 100 individual houses connected to the Main which are at high level is separate and needs a different solution which is not as far advanced. Irish Water have now agreed to provide a written report on these issues and after much complaining I feel it is getting reasonable attention’.

Leaks are a serious problem, they reported that they had come across 20 houses which in total were using as much water as Gorey!! At the beginning they will fix some leaks they see. I asked them to help householders whose pipes are not buried deep enough and thus leave taps on so it does nor freeze but don’t think they will deal with this.

Wicklow is one of only 6 counties where there is a poor out of hours service which I complained about. They are intending to improve this response in Wicklow.

I was surprised that only 10 Councillors attended given how controversial the issue is.

Other interesting facts were there are too many small water plants for good efficiency, Scotland has only a tenth of our number for a larger population

Dear Ruari,

Greystones School Capacity and Location

I think that the Department is not putting the schools in the correct locations and I also get a number of people having difficulty finding a school place.

Primary.

The new part of the town is in the South (Charlesland 1600 high density homes and other close by estates 800 homes). The new schools are in the North, 5.6km away. The 3 older schools in the centre have been extended, often by getting permission at the last minute in April when people could not get into school that year. These schools are 3.3 to 4.5km from Charlesland and the older roads have poor paths and narrow roads for cycling. The result is everybody drives creating major traffic jams. These will get worse as numbers build up.

The Council has zoned space in Charlesland for 2 new Primary Schools and a third Secondary School (on the advice of Wicklow’s planners) none of which are approved by the Department of Education. The new areas have very good footpaths and cycle paths and most could safely use them to get to a school in Charlesland instead of being driven across town at the moment.

From a Town Planning viewpoint it is blindingly obvious there should be a school in Charlesland. A new school should have been built there instead of extending the existing schools on an ad hoc basis each year. It might cost the Department a bit more in the short term. However another 600 prospective houses are zoned here (the land is serviced) in the immediate Charlesland area so this capacity will undoubtedly be used. I think this Charlesland School should be approved now. Council staff say the land can be purchased.

I have illustrated this on a map which I will scan separately in case it does not go through.

Secondary.

The existing school and the new one opening this year have a combined 240 nominal places between them. The outturn of the 7 local primary schools this year is 290 rising to 471 by 2021.
I had expected that the new Educate Together School announced for Bray would take at least 60 from Greystones because of the demand from the large ET Primary School here. However I am now led to believe that that school may not include Greystones in the catchment area. This would have postponed the need for a third Secondary School by a couple of years. I think that the Bray ET should include Greystones, and possibly Wicklow Town, in the catchment as this will give a couple of years grace until the third school is needed in Greystones.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Regards

Derek
Cllr Derek Mitchell

In 1981 Garrett Fitzgerald, a previous FG Taoiseach, wanted to tax short term welfare benefits but the senior officials at the Department of Social Protection refused to do it. This has resulted in the present unfair situation that people could be better off on Social Welfare than employed.

Mitchell asks Council to allow CHANCE to save more dogs from dog pound.

‘I have asked the Council to allow voluntary group CHANCE to help save more dogs from being killed in the Wicklow dog pound’ CHANCE have offered to photograph every dog, put this on their Facebook page and send it to their list of fosterers and rescuers. 79 dogs were killed in the Wicklow pound last year which seems a high number to me and I would like to see the number reduced.

So far the Council has not agreed to let CHANCE do this and I hope this can be changed as this approach works in other counties.

Ends

Greystones Coastguard Station Delay

Tuesday’s meeting of Greystones Town Council was told that the CoastGuard station would be delayed. In July The Minister for Public Works, Brian Hayes, T.D. had agreed to invite tenders this year on the basis that funding would be available in 2013. However funding is not now available in 2013 and the tendering will be delayed.

‘I am very disappointed by this further delay as the OPW have wasted 3 years in pointless bureaucratic procedures’.

The meeting was also told that the Primary Health Care Centre has been delayed until next Spring due to funding issues.

The north area has been seeded with wild grass and this and wild yellow flowers are now starting to grow which takes away the bare look of the area.

Cllr Derek Mitchell said that Greystones Harbour now has the best public boat launching facilities in Ireland and no other town has given 5 clubs good sized compounds next to these launching facilities. (Sea Scouts, Rowers, Sailors, Divers and Anglers). These clubs have made excellent use of the harbour over the Summer.