The Socialist Party will be hosting a public information meeting on the forthcoming Rush Local Area Plan, which is under consideration by Fingal County Council. The meeting will take place on Thursday 5th February, 8pm Connolly’s Pub, Rush.
The plan under consideration proposes developing 76 acres of land to include the following:
- develop land primarily for housing
-reserve a site for a school
- develop a number of playlots
- reserve 11 acres of open space
The plan as proposed permits over 1,000 houses, with high density along Park Road, medium density at the back of Woodland Park, across from Kenure and off the Palmer Road and lower density along the Skerries Road.
The area would be altered beyond recognition. A new relief road is also proposed from the Park Road junction, with a new link road across to the Skerries Road. However these roads will not be in place in advance, which means a major negative impact on existing and any new residents.
Terry Kelleher says: ‘There are more than 130,000 vacant houses in Ireland. Building has collapsed because of over development. There are more than 7,000 vacant units in Fingal. The council will argue this Local Area Plan is being prepared strategically when demand picks up. However, once again, the same mistakes are being proposed. That is, build houses before infrastructure. We have been been through the school of boom and overdevelopment, but the council do not seemed to have learned the lessons’.
As it is the population of Rush is at 8,300 according to the 2006 census, up from 6,500 in 2002, and is similar in population to Kilkenny and Athlone but without their infrastructure. There has already been a significant increase in the population of the town.
The council must work to address existing needs before considering this plan. There is an economic crisis out there where housebuilding has collapsed and the council are continuing as before. What is necessary to inject growth in the local economy and to provide jobs to unemployed construction workers is an Public Infrastructure Building programme to address existing infrastructure deficits.
