@Mr Blowin / those who could not access ( worth the small subscription for supporting local independent journalism IMO)
Inquirer Article:
The woman at the reception in Donabate Community Centre paused when, on Tuesday morning, she was asked if there was a swimming pool in the building.
“No,” she said.
In the summer of 2022, there had been an indoor pop-up pool. But that was temporary, she said.
“No pool in Donabate,” said the woman. “Two beaches, but no pool.”
A recent audit of community and social infrastructure, submitted as part of a recent planning application for developer Glenveagh Living Limited, said otherwise.
Planning applications to develop more than 50 homes have to include these kinds of audits, according to Fingal County Council’s development plan. They need to look at shortfalls, and what might be needed as neighbourhoods grow, it says.
The audit for phase two of the big project at Ballymastone, a townland on the eastern outskirts of Donabate, concludes that it does not need to make space for new facilities. There’s a range of social and community infrastructure in the Donabate-Portrane area, and in neighbouring towns like Malahide, Rush and Lusk, it says.
Ann Hogan, chairperson of DP Crossroads, a local campaign group, said it’s not just the mythical swimming pool that undermines the report.
It oversells Donabate’s facilities by extending its scope beyond the 1km radius that it is supposed to look at, says Hogan. “If it demonstrated the deficiencies, the onus would be on them to actually provide this infrastructure.”
Fingal County Council and Glenveagh Living Ltd said they couldn’t comment on the audit as it is part of a live planning process.
At Ballymastone
Glenveagh Living are set to deliver around 1,200 homes at Ballymastone, on 28ha of what has been council-owned land.
The deal was voted on by Fingal County Councillors in May 2021.
The council’s vision, said a report at the time from senior executive officer Aoife Sheridan, was for an “exemplar sustainable housing development in tandem with the provision of community, recreational and educational facilities”.
The homes would be split – 20 percent would be social, 20 percent would be “affordable purchase” and 60 percent would be private-market homes, the report said.
(It also said that the “affordable” homes had guaranteed prices of €250,000 for a two-bed house and at €270,000.00 for a three-bed house. But those have been revised, with recent adverts showing the early ones for €299,000 to €345,000.)
One of the largest developments in the country, the first phase is 432 homes, alongside a creche, open play area, two small parks and two pocket parks, according to planning documents.
Construction on phase one started last August, said a council press release.
On 30 April 2024, Glenveagh put in a planning application for phase two. That envisages 364 new homes, with two small parks and a pocket park.
It’s a welcomed development, says Hogan, the chairperson of DP Crossroads, a group pushing for a new community and performance arts centre in Donabate.
“But what we are saying is, let’s have the houses, but do it as phased development in tandem with community infrastructure,” she said.
A closer look at the audit
The community and social infrastructure report, filed as part of the planning application, is supposed to work out whether the area has enough community facilities.
The Ballymastone audit looked at: community, healthcare and religious facilities, transport links, and open space, leisure and recreation.
Its conclusion is that the Donabate-Portrane area, as well as Malahide, Rush and Lusk, possess a wide range of physical, cultural, and social facilities, the report says.
“We submit that there are established and yet to be delivered community facilities which will meet the demand created by the future residents of the proposed development,” it says, pointing to the council’s recreational hub which is planned nearby.
But that has stoked confusion among locals, because it doesn’t seem to match up with what is actually in Donabate, says Hogan. “I thought somebody had written it in the dark, because there were a lot of factual errors.”
The chief error is the claim that Donabate’s community centre has an indoor swimming pool, Hogan says. “We don’t.”
There isn’t even a municipal swimming pool in Fingal.
The report also says that Donabate has three GP practices: the Donabate Family Medical Centre, Donabate Clinic and the HSE-run Donabate Health Centre.
But it only has two, Hogan says. “And of them, they’re not taking new patients.”
Donabate Health Centre doesn’t have a GP practice, she says. “So there is a deficit immediately, because people will have to leave the peninsula to access GP services.”
Donabate Clinic, the Donabate Family Medical Centre and the Donabate Health Centre did not respond to queries about the current level of access to GP services in Donabate.
And, in its audit of community facilities, the nearest financial service that the consultants identify is the local post office, Hogan says. “But the ATM was recently removed.”
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The lack of public amenities, facilities and infrastructure along with the massive dumping of housing on the peninsula in areas of special conservation, with coastal erosion and future predicted flooding is a disgrace.
Emailing
planning.enforcement@fingal.ie along with the councillors / candidates is in order.