Wicklow Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Councillor Derek Mitchell

Submission to Consultation Process on Marine Planning & Development Bill with reference to Offshore Renewal Energy, Marine Planning Regime and marine leisure.

Posted by | Community Facilities, Environment & Bray Head, Greystones, Wicklow | No Comments

I made a submission in early January but feel more is needed after the Consultation session in Arklow where I briefly made the following points: Windfarms Visual impact. I represent the Greystones Municipal District and am concerned about the Visual Impact of proposed windfarms from the land. Particularily on large towns that face the sea and place significant emphasis on maintaining an attractive vista from promenades and piers such as Greystones & Bray. These towns have made significant investments in the seafronts and vistas. Also from coastal walks such as…

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Green Party hypocritical in opposing N11 and Rail improvements in Wicklow

Posted by | Transport, Transport M50/N11, Wicklow | No Comments

Fianna Fail also opposed making development dependent on better transport. The Green Party opposed ‘improving  the South East rail line’ in the Regional Planning Guidelines. I asked the Minister for Environment to override this and he has now altered the wording to ‘improve’ rail. Now the Green leader Eamonn Ryan says he will shelve upgrade plans for the N11. In April 2015 I proposed that Rezoning in Wicklow should not take place unless Public Transport and the N11 had been improved. The Green Party & Fianna Fail voted against that…

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Green Party proposal to reduce N11 to 1 lane and a bus lane will Paralyse Wicklow

Posted by | Transport, Transport M50/N11, Wicklow | No Comments

The Green Party proposal to cancel the N11 upgrade and convert 1 lane to a Bus Lane will cause total chaos in Wicklow.  Speaking to Eamonn Ryan, Leader of  the Green Party, on East Coast Radio I was surprised to hear that he wants to reduce the car lanes on the already jammed N11. It is essential that the bus lane is EXTRA to the existing 2 lanes South of Kilmacanoge and there must be many Express Buses. North of Kilmacanoge there may well need to be 3 car lanes….

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Wicklow votes to fund Greenways, Climate Change measures, CCTV projects with 10% LPT rise.

Posted by | Community Facilities, Wicklow | No Comments

The Council voted 21 to 8 to increase the LPT by 10% in 2020. This is the first rise in 5 years and inflation has been 3.2%. The extra money is to fund many projects including: Changing street lights to LED to save energy, Many other Climate Change measures, CCTV scheme in Greystones Each Districts fund to improve Public Areas It will also assist with funding to resurface pitches at Shoreline, Three Trout Stream Greenway to Delgany, Greystones to Wicklow Greenway study, Kilcoole Walks & Newcastle games area which we…

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Mitchell concerned about lack of Windfarm information

Posted by | Environment & Bray Head, Wicklow | No Comments

Snippets of information appear in the news about windfarms off the Wicklow Coast. I asked the Council to find out the details of various plans and approvals, partly to see if the area could obtain a benefit from this. At the July meeting officials said the Council was not responsible for any offshore permitting and it was quite difficult to find out the status of these. So far as I know in 2005 the Codling Bank scheme obtained a foreshore licence for 220 turbines 15km from the nearest point, Greystones…

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National Transport Agency outlines plans for Wicklow

Posted by | Bus/Train, Greystones, Wicklow | No Comments

NTA Chief Executive Ann Graham gave a good presentation to the Council meeting on 4th March outlining the problems and the NTAs solutions. On the railway the single line track around Bray Head is a major problem. I wrote a report in February 2018 suggesting partial double tracking as a way of providing 50% more DARTs to Greystones. This was ignored by Irish Rail but the NTA has got international rail experts involved, who will report by the end of March whether this is feasible. Looking forward to report. More trains…

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Metro must be reinstated to Sandyford and go further towards Wicklow

Posted by | Bus/Train, Wicklow | No Comments

The Irish Times reported that the Metro is to be cancelled to Sandyford. At present the Green Luas line is very overcrowded at rush hour, people can’t get on, and the much higher capacity Metro is needed. The new large town of Cherrywood is being built on the Luas and the very overcrowded M50/N11. In future the Luas is planned to be extended to Bray.  The Metro must be extended to Sandyford, as was planned, and further otherwise the existing Luas will be utterly full. The Metro should end in…

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Opening wider footpath at St. Laurence’s School

Posted by | Community Facilities, Wicklow | No Comments

This improvement to widen the road and footpath is badly needed. Previously trucks mounted the narrow pavement when passing which was very dangerous for pedestrians walking to school. We need to encourage walking to school and this wider road and proper path will help. We now need to widen the road the remainder of the way in order to provide for people walking & cycling to the 4 large schools on it, something which has been planned for many years.

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Mitchell welcomes many more new schools for Wicklow

Posted by | Community Facilities, Wicklow | No Comments

Cllr Derek Mitchell, Cathaoirleach of Greystones District, welcomed the announcement of 4 new schools for Wicklow. I especially welcome the new Secondary school for Greystones & Kilcoole which I expect to be on the site zoned for this 15 years ago in Charlesland. Councillors deliberately zoned it so that it is next to excellent sports facilities including a running track, 5 a side pitches, tennis courts and a junior baseball diamond. ‘Rarely has a school been built next to such good public sports facilities’. It is targeted to open in…

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A Better Rail Service for Greystones, Kilcoole and Wicklow.

Posted by | Greystones, Kilcoole, Transport, Wicklow | No Comments

Procurement of Refurbished and New Diesel railcars.  You are procuring improved carriages, I ask that you get them so that the doors in a limited number of carriages can be opened at short platform stations. These are normal in most other commuter railways but the IR carriages must open all doors on the train which means 8 carriages cannot be used on lines with short platforms (Kilcoole & Rathdrum for example). This will improve the service to Greystones and Wicklow by allowing longer 8 carriage trains in place of the…

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