GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR!!: Recent Episodes
GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR
Tom Fortune challenges Derek ‘Pollyanna’ Mitchell on Declan Meehan’s Morning Show on East Coast FM, 19 February 2014.
Greystones Town Councillor Ciarán Hayden has been attacking Mayor Tom Fortune's call for an immediate 'Plan B' to deal with the possibility of no funding being available for further construction at the harbour.
When Sispar set about replacing the old Heras fencing around the derelict harbour building site in January, Mayor Tom Fortune welcomed the work but cautioned that a Plan B was needed to ensure that the harbour site is "not left in this condition for another summer”.
His comment said: "The whole area still looks like a derelict building site with building materials and equipment littered throughout. It is over a year since Sispar advised us that they were seeking support from NAMA to finance the Primary Care Centre. A year is long enough and there can certainly be no question of the harbour area being left in this condition for another summer”.
He stated that he had asked Sispar and Wicklow County Council to prepare a Plan B for the next Harbour Liaison Committee meeting in late February.
“This plan can be implemented in the event that the response from NAMA is negative or that it becomes apparent that the response will not come in time to landscape the area before the summer,” said Fortune. “Greystones is fortunate that the harbour has been completed and that there is limited public access to one of the walls. However, it is now time for a comprehensive solution for the whole site and I hope we will be presented with this in February.”
GUBOH strongly supported the mayor's call, but unfortunately some town councillors did not. GUBOH's statement of support for this simple request by the Mayor to Wicklow County Council and to Sispar brought down the wrath of Fianna Fail activist Ciarán Hayden and Fine Gael stalwart Derek Mitchell.
While the two did not directly attack Cllr Fortune, Hayden and Mitchell rubbished his proposal, pretending that it came from GUBOH rather than from the Mayor.
First out of the traps was Hayden, who falsely claimed that GUBOH was "trying to impose a three-week deadline on Sispar for a decision on the Primary Care Centre". Having made this entirely false accusation, Hayden went on to say "what GUBOH are doing here is a deliberate attempt to stop the HSE Primary Care Centre from proceeding. They are engaging in negative politics and really, let’s be honest here, they just want to drive Sispar out of town and leave us with nothing but a field at the Harbour.”
This, of course, is nonsense. GUBOH is for completion of the harbour. But GUBOH faces facts, and the facts are these:
- The project is now 26 months or more behind schedule
- All construction work ceased a year ago
- Sispar failed to reopen the south end of the harbour until November 2011
- Sispar's 'business plan' seeking NAMA funding for the PCC has been with the state agency for over a year
- It received a response in September, but that was clearly negative as the company has been in discussions with NAMA following that and was awaiting a further response, which was finally announced a few days ago
- That response asked for a further reply from Sispar. Nobody has yet said whether Sispar has sent its reply to NAMA.
- There is "a possibility" — and only a possibility — that final word from NAMA will be announced in March. Several previous suggested dates passed with no word from NAMA
Which is why we support the Mayor's demand — not our demand — for a Plan B to cover a negative response, or no response, from NAMA and ensure the harbour is in a fit state by summer 2012.
Hayden referred to the Mayor's demand as "negative" and said "there is no plan B or some other make believe alternative at Greystones Harbour.”
Not to be outdone, Derek Mitchell also attacked GUBOH for supposedly trying to impose a deadline: "Their demand to set an end of February is not sensible and will delay completion." He went on to make the absurd accusation that GUBOH, an organisation founded last April, in 2006 "demanded that we built a harbour which would have been too rough to moor boats".
Make no mistake. These two elected representatives would not directly criticise the Mayor. But by dishonestly misrepresenting GUBOH and attacking the notion of a Plan B to be prepared by the end of this month, they were in fact directly attacking the Mayor's demand for a Plan B and they deliberately sought to prevent any such plan being prepared.
The Mayor has responded in a most diplomatic fashion. Here's his full statement dated 9 February:
The Mayor of Greystones, Tom Fortune, has welcomed the news that NAMA has communicated its decision [on funding for a Primary Care Centre] to Sispar and that there is a possibility that an announcement might be made in March.
However, he cautioned that a similar message had been received from NAMA in October suggesting that a conclusion was imminent but this had come to nothing.
“This new information is very welcome, however there is no guarantee that the decision will be positive or indeed that the matter will finally be resolved in March. There is still a need to start discussing alternatives,” said Fortune. “Sispar still need to be able to give the community some certainty about the future of the harbour area in case the issue is not resolved before the summer.”
Cllr Fortune also expressed his concern about recent statements from public representatives that criticised local community and business groups who were lobbying for a plan to landscape the derelict site at the harbour.
“Greystones is facing a crisis,” said Fortune. “We need to work together as a community to see it resolved. I do not believe the aspirations of the lobby groups and those public representatives are very dissimilar and I would appeal to all public representatives to engage constructively with the lobby groups rather than be critical of them.”
Mr Hayden's response to this, dated just today, is another attack on GUBOH. Repeating his false accusation that GUBOH wants to impose a deadline for a decision on the PCC, he claims that "NAMA have completely rubbished GUBOH’s demand for an unworkable three week deadline on a decision to build the Primary Care Centre."
Hayden has not only ignored and rejected the Mayor's call for cooperation and constructive engagement, he has deliberately ignored GUBOH's clarification of its position and has persisted in his lies.
Just yesterday, 9 February, GUBOH spokesman Fiachra Etchingham issued a statement in which he concluded by calling on all local public representatives to get behind Mayor Fortune on this matter.
“Councillor Fortune has made a very reasonable plea for an alternative plan to ensure that Greystones Harbour is not left as an unsightly building site for a fifth successive summer. We appeal to his fellow councillors to support this initiative. It will be a long time before this development is completed and the community and local businesses have a right to see their harbour left in a usable and tidy condition in the interim."
The statement rejected outright Cllr Hayden’s assertion that the group want to stop the construction of the PCC at the harbour. “Our position is quite the opposite,” said Etchingham. “Our problem is that Sispar would build the PCC and won’t finish out the development. We are simply lobbying for a resolution to a development that is stalled because of lack of finance and the collapse of the housing market.”
Etchingham also rejected Hayden’s claims that GUBOH were trying to drive Sispar out of Greystones “We have always tried to engage constructively with Sispar. As recently as two weeks ago we wrote to them seeking a meeting to discuss what actions they could take to make the harbour area less unsightly.”
Sispar has not replied to that letter.
The fact is that if Hayden and Mitchell would engage with community groups like GUBOH, and with the Greystones Chamber which is also very concerned about the condition of the harbour site and its immediate future, then Sispar might feel more obliged to do something positive.
Rejecting the Mayor's call for cooperation and continuing to attack GUBOH and oppose the call for a Plan B is playing entirely into Sispar's hands and gives them comfort in the situation. We have to ask, who do these two represent? It's hard to see that it is the Greystones community.
ECFM covers the GUBOH Harbour Party on Sunday 3 July at 3.00pm at The Beach House plaza opposite the harbour.
THE GREYSTONES GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR group has rejected the plans for temporary access to the harbour put forward by developer Sispar at a meeting on Tuesday 28 June.
• First, this plans fails on timing. The proposed start date for the work means that the area of the harbour to be opened will not be available for public use until summer is over and the children have gone back to school.
Sispar mentioned public access next September. This is not good enough.
• The Sispar plan removes only about 70 metres of the hoardings.
Hundreds of metres will stay in place, all the way from the harbour entrance up along the North Beach Road, so that businesses and residents in the area will remain behind hoardings for at least 13 or 14 months, until September next year at the earliest.
“This hoarding is damaging to local business and a huge imposition on residents. The medical centre could be constructed in a manner which allows a great deal more hoarding to be removed,” Miller continued.
• The Sispar plan proposes the minimum public space.
Most of the space to the south of the slipway will be taken up by a 90-space car park together with the temporary access road to the boat pens and pier.
No green area is proposed. The public space on the shore side of the harbour is limited to the short beach and a narrow strip behind it, plus access to the upper level of the south pier.
“The Sispar plan includes less public space than any of the proposals submitted to the company,” said GUBOH. “There is no green area, no seating, no picnic space, and no plaza. Instead, Sispar proposes to occupy most of the area with an ugly car park which could easily be located elsewhere.”
GUBOH spokesman Basil Miller on the Morning Show on EastCoast FM.
THE ‘Give Us Back Our Harbour’ group and directors of harbour development company Sispar held a first meeting on Wednesday 8 June and agreed several steps aimed at opening the fenced-off harbour to the public this summer.
Sispar accepted that the need to open up the south end of the harbour to the community is a “given”. The company accepted that a plan to do this must be finalised as quickly as possible, and implemented immediately thereafter.
Directors Paraic Keogh and Paddy O’Rourke agreed a target date of 27 June by which they would return to the community with proposals which would take into account the proposals submitted by GUBOH and other parties.
GUBOH handed over copies of the group’s latest proposals, updated in the light of earlier discussions and subsequent advice. Given that whatever interim works are carried out now could be in place for some years to come, the proposals stress the need for a quality approach and high standards in implementing them.
The group was represented by spokesman Basil Miller, John Byrne, Fiachra Etchingham and John FFF O’Brien. The group strongly put the case that plans to open the entire site need to be considered in the light of the economic and banking collapse and the subsequent funding shortage.
GUBOH suggested landscaping and opening up the north side of the development (apart from the area needed for the Primary Care Centre (PCC)) including the north harbour wall. Sispar agreed to consider this and engage in further consultations.
They also suggested placing fixed moorings in both inner and outer basins as a means of providing a revenue stream and opening the area to public use. The company agreed to consider this.
The GUBOH plan emphasises the need that any temporary works be of good quality and should restore the general attractiveness of the harbour area as a visitor destination, as well as giving back the amenity to the public.
“Greystones harbour has always been at the heart of the town,” Miller told the Sispar representatives. “It has been essential to tourism in the immediate area and is the termination of the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk. It is also a hinge point in plans for a continuous coastal walk stretching from Bray to Wicklow.”
Because of the importance to tourism of restoring the visual attractiveness of the area, GUBOH stressed that any work must take this wider context into account.
“Whatever is done to ensure this must be done to quality standards. It must be acceptable both aesthetically and functionally. It must preserve the attractiveness of the spot and, in fact, it must add to and enhance the attractiveness of the area in its quality and aesthetics,” said Miller.
The GUBOH representatives emphasised the need for speedy action. Fiachra Etchingham pointed out that work on a plan submitted by 27 June would have to start on-site that same week in order to ensure the beach and other amenities would be available to the public for any substantial part of the summer.
Sispar agreed that immediate action would be essential if access was to be available in time for the August Bank Holiday.
GUBOH suggested that the area of the proposed public park be landscaped to a basic standard of quality as a second step in the process and opened as a temporary park before the end of this year.
GUBOH accepted that further consultations between Sispar and the local community would be via the meetings recommended unanimously by Town Councillors at their meeting on 31 May, where GUBOH will be represented.
GUBOH spokesperson Basil Miller discussed the latest developments in the campaign to get the harbour back to the people with Greystones Mayor Ciarán Hayden and Fine Gael town councillor Derek Mitchell on The Morning Show on EastCoast FM this morning, 30 May 2011.
This is our first version of the clip, but we hope to have a better quality recording later today.
The Morning Show on EastCoast FM, Monday 9 May 2011. Mayor Ciarán Hayden explains what came of his meeting with two GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR members, while Basil Miller hopes that the progress so far will lead to rapid action to return the harbour amenity to the public after three and a half years.
GUBOH spokesman Basil Miller sets out the group's objectives and debates with Greystones Mayor Ciarán Hayden
Gillian Demery, a harbour resident, explains to Declan Meehan just how awful it has been living with the Greystones Harbour construction and why she despairs at the thought that the hoardings may be staying up indefinitely. Town Councillor Derek Mitchell discusses the difficulties with her.