Local politician wants to give away money.

il gatto

http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbqlojoj&cat=news
Councillor and Chairman of the council, J. Devins was on Ocean FM yesterday, saying the council should give the money and that D. Bree was a naysayer for objecting. Basically, the developer was to build a footbridge from behind the Glasshouse to Markievicz Road as part of their planning permission. They've decided they don't want to so the council will have to pay out over a million euro to get them to fulfill the conditions of the planning granted to them.
Basically, if I have this right, I can plan a house of say 4,000sq ft. Then I can take out a mortgage for a house of 2,000sq ft. Then all I have to do is tell the council I don't want to build any house, and Mr. Devins will write me a check for the balance, enabling me to fulfill my planning conditions at half price. Nice one.:)

Xiney

...


*sets watch to "kill"*

veritable

terrible analogy

takola

Sorry Il Gatto, I think your analogy went way over my head!

I think a foot bridge there would be completely unnecessary though and the mind boggles at how it's going to "greatly enhance the attractiveness of the city"? (Are we a city now? :eek:) Looks like a waste of time and money to me tbh

Essexboy

il gatto wrote: »

http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbqlojoj&cat=news
Councillor and Chairman of the council, J. Devins was on Ocean FM yesterday, saying the council should give the money and that D. Bree was a naysayer for objecting. Basically, the developer was to build a footbridge from behind the Glasshouse to Markievicz Road as part of their planning permission. They've decided they don't want to so the council will have to pay out over a million euro to get them to fulfill the conditions of the planning granted to them.
Basically, if I have this right, I can plan a house of say 4,000sq ft. Then I can take out a mortgage for a house of 2,000sq ft. Then all I have to do is tell the council I don't want to build any house, and Mr. Devins will write me a check for the balance, enabling me to fulfill my planning conditions at half price. Nice one.:)

What else would you expect from that little weasel? Last year, he persuaded his fellow politicians to override the planning system to benefit a local business man.
http://buckplanning.blogspot.com/2008/04/councillors-defy-planners-on-house.html

GG66

It's not the first time that same councillor would be seen to be pro developers .... Oh he's FF, I'm shocked


This seems plain stupid.

Surely if a developer fails to adhere to he planning permission given then they should have to pay?

What's the point in spending money on a footbridge there??

il gatto

veritable wrote: »

terrible analogy

Iy's not an analogy. It's a mirror scenario where the planning applicant is a private individual rather than a developer.
And takola, it's not a waste of money as according to the planning permission, the developer will have to build it free and gratis for the town. Means jobs, taxes and a free bridge. Except the chairman of the council doesn't want the developer to spend their own money adhering to the planning permission, so he intends to spend public money instead. The whole thrust of my original post was, would the council pay for half my costs if I threatened not to carry out a planning approved project because it's too expensive? I doubt it.

Essexboy

GG66 wrote: »

It's not the first time that same councillor would be seen to be pro developers .... Oh he's FF, I'm shocked


This seems plain stupid.

Surely if a developer fails to adhere to he planning permission given then they should have to pay?

What's the point in spending money on a footbridge there??

Yes, and the council would have to borrow the money. http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbqlojoj&cat=news

starbelgrade

It's an outrageous situation this. Do we have NO say on how our taxes are wasted?!

I've a wee suggestion for ya. How about improving the roads to our villages.. take the roads from Collooney to Coolaney & the road From Rosses Point into town - the Rosses Point Road (once it shoots by Caltragh, worth noting), is wide, well marked & for the most part, has hard shoulders on both sides, it has pedestrian crossing, traffic calming measures through the more densley populated section & is well signposted for speed limits.

The road from Collooney to Coolanay however, is narrrow, winding, badly in need of resurfacing, has virtually no road markings (though a few half arsed ones were thrown up recently) and very little signage of any kind.

Now, Coolaney & Rosses Point have much the same population. How did that happen?

And how does it happen that our councellors get to waste our money on fancy arsed bridges that no-one REALLY wants? How about a pedestrian crossing at the Ulster Bank so near-death doesn't occur there every day as pedestrian play chicken with cars coming round the bend?

No - lets build a nice glass & steel bridge instead. It'll look pretty.

GG66

starbelgrade wrote: »

The road from Collooney to Coolanay however, is narrrow, winding, badly in need of resurfacing, has virtually no road markings (though a few half arsed ones were thrown up recently) and very little signage of any kind.

Now, Coolaney & Rosses Point have much the same population. How did that happen?

I expect it has to do with the tourist potential of Rosses Point over Coolaney and its proximity to town. And as with any of these decisions the strenght of those lobbying for it.

I find a lot of people will moan about an issue for quite a while before they pick up the phone and ring the Co. Councillor to express their views.. Doubt they read this thread so give them a call...

starbelgrade

GG66 wrote: »

I expect it has to do with the tourist potential of Rosses Point over Coolaney and its proximity to town. And as with any of these decisions the strenght of those lobbying for it.

I find a lot of people will moan about an issue for quite a while before they pick up the phone and ring the Co. Councillor to express their views.. Doubt they read this thread so give them a call...

I'd say it has as much to do with the money & power of the residents & the influence that brings, as the tourist potential!

I've only been here a few months, but I've written to the Council & it's councellors. No even one half decent reply. Meanwhile, the suspension's about to fall out of me car!!

GG66

starbelgrade wrote: »

I'd say it has as much to do with the money & power of the residents & the influence that brings, as the tourist potential!

I've only been here a few months, but I've written to the Council & it's councellors. No even one half decent reply. Meanwhile, the suspension's about to fall out of me car!!

May also have to do with the level of traffic on both roads has something to do with priority....

Country roads are s**t in general. waste of time driving a decent car on half of them. Either the sides are scratched to bits from avoiding oncoming traffic or as you say suspension gets a hammering...

A phone call will have more weight than a letter and more voices will make an even bigger difference. With local elections around the corner you'd be surprised how much movement can occur with concentrated pressure

il gatto

Oh ye of too much faith. A phonecall is more dependent on who is making it than who you call. Roads without markings are lethal and the council have received many calls from people I know to that effect. Nothing done yet. Most of the road to Coolaney has no markings. The road from the N4 to Riverstown has no markings. Hundreds of miles of roads in Sligo alone haven't had a lick of paint applied for decades, if ever. Still, doesn't seem to stop the council shoring up developers responsibilities with borrowed money. PAving O'Connell Street is estimated at 4.4 million apparently. And they intend to pay it back over 30 years also. If 1.3 for the bridge will cost almost 80,000 a year, the paving would be around 230,000. That's over 300,000 a year for the next 30 years:eek:

GG66

il gatto wrote: »

Oh ye of too much faith.

ok I simply won't bother so!

Of course some people have more influence and developers have led town planning in Sligo for far too long. If more people call about a specific issue it will force it onto the agenda .... Look at what happened with the Fair green area. proposed car park cancelled due to intensive local lobbying

Rossibaby

il gatto wrote: »

http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbqlojoj&cat=news
Councillor and Chairman of the council, J. Devins was on Ocean FM yesterday, saying the council should give the money and that D. Bree was a naysayer for objecting. Basically, the developer was to build a footbridge from behind the Glasshouse to Markievicz Road as part of their planning permission. They've decided they don't want to so the council will have to pay out over a million euro to get them to fulfill the conditions of the planning granted to them.
Basically, if I have this right, I can plan a house of say 4,000sq ft. Then I can take out a mortgage for a house of 2,000sq ft. Then all I have to do is tell the council I don't want to build any house, and Mr. Devins will write me a check for the balance, enabling me to fulfill my planning conditions at half price. Nice one.:)

what the hell is devins at im glad people objected to his proposal

il gatto

GG66 wrote: »

ok I simply won't bother so!

Of course some people have more influence and developers have led town planning in Sligo for far too long. If more people call about a specific issue it will force it onto the agenda .... Look at what happened with the Fair green area. proposed car park cancelled due to intensive local lobbying

If people had to get onto the counsil about every specific failing in their jurisdiction, they'd have to give up their day jobs. Why, when tax money pays councillors and council officials their healthy wages, should we then harass them for simple things like a white stripe on the road to stop people being killed and injured? Our standard of local government is as abysmal as our standard of national government, and personally, I won't waste any more time ringing the council about cavernous pot-holes only for the request for them to be dealt with, ignored, or carried out in the manner of a personal favour to myself. My own view on things. Others may obviously do as they wish.

starbelgrade

il gatto wrote: »

If people had to get onto the counsil about every specific failing in their jurisdiction, they'd have to give up their day jobs. Why, when tax money pays councillors and council officials their healthy wages, should we then harass them for simple things like a white stripe on the road to stop people being killed and injured? Our standard of local government is as abysmal as our standard of national government, and personally, I won't waste any more time ringing the council about cavernous pot-holes only for the request for them to be dealt with, ignored, or carried out in the manner of a personal favour to myself. My own view on things. Others may obviously do as they wish.

Don't give up dude - you can't let the system beat you, man!

il gatto

starbelgrade wrote: »

Don't give up dude - you can't let the system beat you, man!

There's other methods though. Better and more effective ones. Having ruled out terrorism, it's just a matter of finding the right one:D

Big_Mac

starbelgrade wrote: »

I'd say it has as much to do with the money & power of the residents & the influence that brings, as the tourist potential!

I've only been here a few months, but I've written to the Council & it's councellors. No even one half decent reply. Meanwhile, the suspension's about to fall out of me car!!

Something similar happened to me recently.
I was going home to my parents house when i had pulled in to avoid another motorist, and I hit a rock and damaged two wheels on my car. I wrote a letter of complaint to the county Manger (Hubert Keirns) explaining the situation with photos of course, and asked that I be compensated for the damage to my car as my road tax pays for the council to maintan the roads to an acceptable and safe manner. Took a while, and I had to be persistant, but eventually I got a cheque to replace two wheels and tyres on my car.

If you can prove that damage to your car is as a direct result of neglect to the road surfaces, then I would put it in writing and ask to be compensated for the damage that has been caused due to the council's neglect. Might get their arse in gear and do something about the state of the road.... then again, maybe not................

GG66

Big_Mac wrote: »

Something similar happened to me recently.
I was going home to my parents house when i had pulled in to avoid another motorist, and I hit a rock and damaged two wheels on my car. I wrote a letter of complaint to the county Manger (Hubert Keirns) explaining the situation with photos of course, and asked that I be compensated for the damage to my car as my road tax pays for the council to maintan the roads to an acceptable and safe manner. Took a while, and I had to be persistant, but eventually I got a cheque to replace two wheels and tyres on my car.

If you can prove that damage to your car is as a direct result of neglect to the road surfaces, then I would put it in writing and ask to be compensated for the damage that has been caused due to the council's neglect. Might get their arse in gear and do something about the state of the road.... then again, maybe not................

Well done. I know of a similar situation where a freont bumper was badly damaged due to kerbing too high.. owner got compensation.

Wear and tear due to potholes is harder to prove though and seems to be a fact of life when living rural

Big_Mac

GG66 wrote: »

Well done. I know of a similar situation where a freont bumper was badly damaged due to kerbing too high.. owner got compensation.

Wear and tear due to potholes is harder to prove though and seems to be a fact of life when living rural

True, but what happened to me wasI hit a large rock that was sticking out of the ditch, They tried to claim that it wasn't their problem as the ditch was part of the private land, and that I should take it up with them. I went back to them and asked if it was on private land why did they surface over it when they were doing the tar and chip. Next thing I know is they were asking me to give them a quote for the repair.