Community Action needed to demand Ballykeefe Park is built

Cianpop

For over three years the people of Fr. Russell Road and surrounding area have been waiting on the long promised ‘Ballykeefe Neighbourhood Park’. The project is now 2 years late, and we are no closer to the project being started – the land has still not even been acquired!

I was recently contacted by a local in the area who asked me, and the Socialist Party, to raise this issue. I've done a fair bit of research on it, and it is quite a scandal. However, rather than me or the Socialist Party simply putting out a press release, or writing a letter or whatever (which has no real impact, in my opinion), what I wanted to do was help spread the idea that only community action from locals will have any chance of getting this park, and make ourselves available to help out in anyway if there are people out there who would be up for building a campaign on it. It's not about more empty promises, it's simply an offer for support if locals want to campaign for this.

For the thousands of families living in Dooradoyle there is not a single park. Before the local elections in 2009 a sign was put up promising the imminent start of construction of a state-of-the-art park, with green areas, playing pitches, and a children’s playground. During the general election just gone noises were once again made that the new government would provide this rapidly. However, they have still not given a date for the commencement of construction, nevermind completion, and in fact have not even acquired the land yet. Talk of a playground in the Crenscent is no replacement - there is a huge difference between some swings in a shopping centre, across busy roads, and a purposebuilt 14 acre park as promised.

Community action the only way

Locals cannot rely on the politicians to get this built. All the establishment parties have had their opportunity, whether in government nationally or on the council. Only community pressure can win – getting organised, collecting petitions, protesting at the council meetings etc.

Part of the delay seems to be due to difficulties with the property developer who owns the land. Public good must come before private greed – the developer should be compelled to sell the land, at agricultural prices. It was developers thirst for profit, together with the connivance of the establishment parties, which led to a situation where thousands of houses were built here without the necessary facilities. We should not have to pay twice for their greed.

Getting organised to demand facilities

During the property boom the Council got huge incomes from the construction that was taking place, taking their cut from the extortionate prices forced on home buyers. Yet they have failed to use those funds to provide decent facilities to service the new estates. We have paid for these facilities, we are completely correct to demand them.

As I said, I'm a member of the Socialist Party. We have a lot of experience in helping people get organised to fight for services and facilities as well as a long campaigning record against pay cuts and job losses. The key thing in my opinion is that locals come together, organise activities to spread the word and build up momentum, and put the council under pressure. I, and the party, will help the community get organised in any way we can, through facilitating a public meeting, protest or whatever those affected decide.

So what do people think? Are there locals out there who feel strongly about this and would be up for campaigning on it?

- Cian Prendiville

Insect Overlord

Sorry Cian, personal e-mail addresses and phone-numbers shouldn't be posted on-thread. Anyone interested in contacting you should request your details via Private Message.

Berty

With little money in the city and county do you not think people so forget about having a public convenience over, lets say, improving our public services?

Or more traffic lights.

I think you are missing a very important fiscal point on the developers land issue. Why should the developer sell land at reduced prices? If any developer is met by the prospect of NAMA his property/land is valued at existing market values and/or the previous agreed value of it. By selling or renting at reduced prices and THEN going to NAMA you are then only paid at the current market prices that you have accepted.

This is why empty land/property is better than occupied property.

Kess73

There were a few folk on here with young families that brought this issue up a number of times in the past.


I hope they are still about, and get in touch with you on this. For anyone with kids, or wants to have kids and wants to live on the Dooradoyle/Raheen side of town, a well kept and safe park with decent facilities would be a boon.

Quite a few people in the past, mostly those with political aspirations it has to be said, have made a lot of noise about this which was mostly bluster for the cameras whenever a local election or similar was on the horizon.

You will have to convince people that you are about more than self promoting inches in a paper in order to get folk involved. In my honest opinion of course.

That is not to say that you are just a self promoting person, but rather a case of once bitten twice shy for the people who believed past campaigns were going somewhere.

It is a good and genuine cause that would be beneficial to lots of people, both those who would eventyually use it and those who would get employment from the development and maintanence of such a project. It would enhance also the areas around it.

It might be a good idea, if you have not done so already, to get in touch with a few of the community groups within the surrounding areas, and with some of the sporting organisations in the area, as they will contain people who would be interested in what you are proposing, and would have direct knowledge and experience of the feelings at local level.

But I fear a major stumbling block will be the financial aspect of a project that was supposed to have funds put aside for it, but whose funding has no doubt been swallowed up by some other project long since.

Berty

I also hope this thread / contributors are not treated like a focus group.

Kess73

Berty wrote: »

I also hope this thread / contributors are not treated like a focus group.

Tell me. Would a Dairy milk be favoured over a Moro in Newport?

Insect Overlord

Berty wrote: »

I also hope this thread / contributors are not treated like a focus group.

I've left it open in the hope/expectation that that will not be the case.

Cianpop

Berty wrote: »

I also hope this thread / contributors are not treated like a focus group.

Well, just to be clear about what I've done. I was actually approached about this in the election campaign, but there is not much that you can actually genuinely do about these things during elections, so I said to the person that we would return post election and see if there is anything that can be done to actually campaign on it. My, and the Socialist Party's approach is always to emphasise the need for people to organise themselves and take action. Even where we have TD's or councillors, that is the key thing, especially in a case like this where if the council is going to do anything it'll have to be forced to do it.

In the last while I've done a bit of research, and also talked to various locals, including going door to door, basically saying the same thing as above: that the community needs to get organised and fight for this if it wants it, throwing out some ideas (a meeting, petition, picketing council meetings etc), and offering my support in helping to facilitate this if people want help. If it was about self-promotion, I would have simply put out a press statement, wrote a letter to the council, and told everyone in the community 'I'm on it', but is not what we're about.

So far, it seems to me that there is a desire for this, particularly from families with kids, a correct attitude that the council and politicians aren't going to do it, but there doesn't seem to be that bite (maybe it's lack of confidence that campaigning could win) of people willing to get up and campaign for it. Without that - the two or three locals to step forward and organise something - there isn't much that can be done. Hopefully I'm wrong, and there are some people, maybe even on here, as I do think that if there was a campaign built on this, it could really put the council under pressure and win.

Berty

How much is this going to cost the council to complete the project from start to finish based on current estimates?

Kess73

Bump