Dublin Port Bull Island (Dollymount) Gift Proposal

legrand

For years (decades now) Dublin Port has wanted to develop additional facilities on the north eastern part of Dublin Port (a planning application refused last year).

Objections over the years were lead by 'Dublin Bay Loftus' and people of Clontarf.

Today, the media reports that Dublin Port want to gift some 10.5 hectares of Bull Island to the local community as part of a plan to redevelop the city’s port facilities.

As a former resident I had no idea that Dublin Port owned any part of Bull Island.

So this is some sort of buy-off - somehow, given what is I assume is a right-of-way (in terms of access etc) I don't see any benefit or indeed 'need' to 'gift it back'.

On a more unsettling note, our esteemed politicians are playing this up big time.

From IT today..

"Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar welcomed the initiative, saying “Dublin Port’s gift to the people of Dublin will be welcomed by all and remembered for generations." (really? :mad:)
"Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan also welcomed the proposal, describing it as a valuable contribution to the conservation and enhancement of the island."

deandean

I would not trust dublin port as far as i would throw them. Bunch of spin-meisters.
And as for eoin keegan - first he made life a misery for dublin city motorists then he did an even worse job in Dún Laoghaire ìIRC.

chopper6

They're up to something...that island has been part of some vague plan since the 1960's according to my grandparents and it apparantly involves reclaiming more land from the sea..

neris

chopper6 wrote: »

They're up to something...that island has been part of some vague plan since the 1960's according to my grandparents and it apparantly involves reclaiming more land from the sea..

didnt theyt want to add somthing like 50 acres of landfill onto the port a few years back?

chopper6

neris wrote: »

didnt theyt want to add somthing like 50 acres of landfill onto the port a few years back?

Wouldnt surprise me...i've always heard they want to let the lagoon between the clontarf road and the island silt up so they can use the land...that's why the causeway has no culvert to allow tidal scouring.

deandean

neris wrote: »

didnt theyt want to add somthing like 50 acres of landfill onto the port a few years back?

Yes and I have my own theory about this. They don't really need the space - there is plenty of unused space in the port area at the moment.

They started making noises about filling in the 52 acres at about the time the government was getting serious about digging the Port Tunnel.

I did some calculations. If you work out the volume of rock & soil removed during the tunnel digging operation, and if you spread that on 52 acres, the height is increased by 4.9 metres over the 52 acres. So Dublin Port could charge the tunnel operator per tonne to dispose of the tunnel rock and at the same time do a land-grab.

Anything that is property-related, Dublin Port have made a complete hames of. Remember the Irish Glass Bottle site? remember the planning issues along the North quays?

And when you look at the detail of what they are proposing to do with Bull Island, of course they are offering to do this in exchange for planning approval for a major redevelopment (although within the port boundary this time).

Here's a link to the article, great PR there.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/bull-island-land-to-be-transferred-into-public-ownership-29587667.html

Judging by the photograph in the article they seem to have a government minister and the Dublin city manager well on board so I'm sure their planning application will be treated 'favourably'.

For everyone else living in the area, I urge you to keep your eye on the ball and do not trust the Dublin Port authority not even one little bit. But that's just my opinion.

alastair

legrand wrote: »

As a former resident I had no idea that Dublin Port owned any part of Bull Island.

afaik, it's always owned the entire thing, given that it's effectively an outgrowth of the Bull Wall, and didn't exist before the wall.