Speech Proposing Review of Derelict Sites Legislation

Here is the speech I gave on my motion on Derelict Sites at today's Council meeting. The motion was unanimously agreed by the members of the Council. I'll be sure to update this blog with any reply from Minister Gormley.

Motion 4: Cllr Dermot Looney
"That this Council, in light of existing derelict sites in the county, including the McHugh's Site in Greenhills, and the likelihood of further sites in the coming months and years, notes that existing legislation, including the 1990 Derelict Sites Act, fails to empower local authorities and communities in appropriately resolving the dereliction and neglect caused by these eyesores. This Council calls on the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government to conduct a review of the relevant legislation and practice in the area and, on the basis of such a review, to introduce changes to redress the balance between the interest of developers and those of local communities."

The purpose of this motion is to set in place an historic review of the legislation governing derelict sites in this county and across Ireland. It is timely given the likely onset of dereliction across the grey swathes of NAMAland. But it is equally relevant to the extant eyesores which already pollute our area.

The citizens we represent are entitled to have their communities protected within, by and through the public sphere. That notion of a public sphere was under constant attack throughout the so-called boom. Developers and their developments, no matter how unsuitable or impracticable, were lauded in the name of progress.

Those of us who dared to question the landgrabs, the gazumpers, the get-rich-quick overdevelopment and the greedy hanging on to sites in the hope of further price inflation, were accused of begrudgery and drudgery. Now, as the bubble lies burst on so many of their properties, they’re the ones being bailed out by their Government friends, and as those developers retreat into comfortable obscurity, or scarper out of Ireland altogether, the ghost estates and other kips left behind continue to haunt our communities.

The existing legislation and practice have failed, and failed miserably, to protect the communities we represent. The legislation is out-of-date – as well as the 20 year old Derelict Sites Act, much of the role of our councils relies on a Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act from 1964. The legislation is overly-complicated – the myriad processes remain a mystery to communities after years of involvement in seeking cleanups and repairs. And the legislation is clearly pro-developer and anti-community.

The 1990 Derelict Sites Act tells us that “It shall be the duty of a local authority to take all reasonable steps (including the exercise of any appropriate statutory powers) to ensure that any land situate in their functional area does not become or continue to be a derelict site.”

Regarding the McHugh’s site in Greenhills I refer to in the motion, many of these steps and powers have been taken. But rather than a neighbourhood centre providing services to our community, or even a cleaned-up patch of open space, we are left with the neglect, the eyesore, the dumping and the rats. Up ‘til recently we also suffered vast scrawls of graffiti, an unsecured entrance, so-called antisocial behaviour within the site and the danger of bonfires at Hallowe’en. This Council called, as part of the statutory powers spoken of, for the provision of a brick wall at the site. Instead, the developer threw up a few sheets of MDF hoarding in a job that would make a cowboy builder blush.

The long, drawn-out process taken against McHughs and its sister derelict site less than a mile away at the Burmah Garage in Wellington, and the drip-drip of action and inaction, have led to almost 20 years of dereliction on these sites alone. There is no more damning evidence of the failure of derelict sites legislation than the failure to deal with those who own those sites. As Seán McHugh sits in the Spanish sun, the communities left without a neighbourhood centre, a Post Office for old age pensions or a pharmacy for medicines stay behind as victims of pro-developer legislation.

Press Release: Looney Takes Derelict Sites Campaign to Dáil and Council Chamber

Cllr Dermot Looney, a Labour Party representative on South Dublin County Council, has taken his campaign against derelict sites to the Council chamber and Dáil Éireann. Looney is seeking to ensure laws governing eyesores - such as those at the McHugh’s site in Greenhills and the Burmah Garage in Wellington - are strengthened “to redress the balance between the interest of developers and those of local communities.”

Looney’s motion to Monday’s County Council meeting calls on Councillors to seek a review of the laws governing derelict sites. Meanwhile, Looney has worked with Labour’s Dáil spokesperson on Environment, Joanna Tuffy TD, to call on Minister John Gormley to review the 1990 Derelict Sites Act and other relevant legislation through a parliamentary question.

“I am asking Councillors here in South Dublin to help set in place an historic review of the legislation governing derelict sites in this county and across Ireland,” said Looney. “Between the McHugh’s and Burmah Garage sites there is almost 20 years of dereliction and neglect impacting on local communities in Dublin 12 and 6 West. Although our Council are reluctant to define sites as derelict under the narrow legislation currently in place, there are dozens of other neglected sites elsewhere in Tallaght Central, with the likelihood of many more to follow across the grey swathes of NAMA-land.”

“Having campaigned in particular on the McHugh’s site for some years, I know how limited the current laws governing derelict sites are. The balance is tipped in favour of developers and against local communities who have to endure these eyesores. The existing legislation and practice have failed, and failed miserably, to protect the communities we represent. Now it’s time for Minister Gormley to change the laws to make it easier for local authorities to punish rogue developers and, where appropriate, take over the sites.”

“Minister Gormley’s response to my colleague Joanna Tuffy does not inspire me with confidence. He refers specifically to ‘ghost estates,’ which while important, are not the only types of derelict sites in our community. Now the message is going out loud from Greenhills, Templeogue, Tallaght and South Dublin – it’s time for a change in the law,” said Looney.

ENDS

Editor’s Note:

Cllr Looney’s motion to South Dublin County Council (May meeting, deferred from April):

“That this Council, in light of existing derelict sites in the county, including the McHugh's Site in Greenhills, and the likelihood of further sites in the coming months and years, notes that existing legislation, including the 1990 Derelict Sites Act, fails to empower local authorities and communities in appropriately resolving the dereliction and neglect caused by these eyesores. This Council calls on the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government to conduct a review of the relevant legislation and practice in the area and, on the basis of such a review, to introduce changes to redress the balance between the interest of developers and those of local communities.”

Joanna Tuffy TD’s Parliamentary Question 17045/10 – April 27th, 2010

“Question 332: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to review the existing legislation, including the 1990 Derelict Sites Act to empower local authorities and communities to resolve the dereliction problem and the neglect caused by these eyesores in view of the large number of existing derelict sites around the country.”

Answer from Minister John Gormley: “Under the Derelict Sites Act 1990, local authorities are required to take all reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become or continue to be a derelict site. To this end, they have been given substantial powers under the Act in relation to any such sites, including powers to require specified measures to be taken in relation to a derelict site, to impose a levy on derelict sites, or to compulsorily acquire any derelict site. I expect local authorities to use their statutory powers as they consider appropriate. While I have no plans to amend the Derelict Sites Act at this time, as I indicated in reply to Priority Question No. 4 on 22 April 2010, I will keep the need for further legislative reforms to assist local authorities in addressing the issue of unfinished or unoccupied estates under review.”

McHughs - Recent Updates

A number of local residents have been in touch asking for updates on the McHugh's site, now entering its seventh year of dereliction. While I welcome the limited shopping facilities on offer in the new Traders Off-Licence, facts are that our neighbourhood centre remains a derelict eyesore. McHugh's has been my number one priority on the Council and I have been working with a wide group of people to ensure appropriate development at the site to provide the community facilities we need - as well as safeguarding the future of the site with a new Specific Local Objective in the County Plan.

Below are my most recent updates on McHugh's from my December, November and September local newsletters.

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December 09 Update...

I have been unrelenting in promoting our campaign to reclaim the derelict McHugh’s site for our local community. It is almost seven years now since the old shopping arcade was destroyed by fire and local people remain rightly furious over the lack of appropriate development at the site and the increasingly-bad eyesore left behind. The graffiti around the site has become worse in recent months and the site was a huge fire hazard over Hallowe’en, when I liaised with the Gardaí to ensure that the opening of the site would not lead to a potentially dangerous bonfire. Following my queries at Council level I have established that there are now plans by McHugh to scale down the current planning permission for the site, which was granted in April 2007 and will last until April 2012. My understanding is that the revised plans, which are still being drawn up, will include fewer apartments along with offices, a restaurant and a couple of retail units along with a mini-supermarket. While I would welcome any serious plan to provide decent services on the site, I will not support any unrealistic proposals or ones which are not likely to get built.

The good news is that, through my own motion for the County Development Plan which was agreed by the Council, any future plans for the site will only be permitted to include community facilities and appropriate commercial services for local residents – the scare stories promoted by those with questionable agendas as to what might go into the site should be nipped in the bud. Both myself and Pat Rabbitte TD will continue to promote what Labour believes is the best option – a Council-led Compulsory Purchase of the site, and subsequent community-led development – in the months ahead.

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November '09 Update

Cllr Dermot Looney continues to lead the fight to restore the old McHugh’s site which should be providing an important neighbourhood centre for local people. The lack of progress from the developer and the ongoing dereliction continues to cause grave concern across Greenhills. Dermot has secured the community nature of the site in the long term with a Specific Local Objective now in place in the County Development Plan that the site can only be used for appropriate community and local services, and no other purposes.

Cllr Dermot Looney adds:

“In response to the pressure put on by our community, the Council Management finally placed a fine on McHugh of €60,000 a year under the Derelict Sites Act. However the owner has still not paid the levy and now the Council’s Law Department is pursuing the matter through the courts. Against the background of the government’s €54 Billion NAMA bailout of the banks and developers, the cost of acquiring our derelict neighbourhood centre site is modest indeed – and I will fight to ensure the money collected from McHugh is used for our community services.”

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September '09 Update

6 years on, and the derelict former site of the McHugh’s Shopping Centre on St James’ Road continues to be the major issue for residents of Greenhills and Limekiln. After a campaign launched by Dermot Looney last year, the site was
eventually entered onto the Derelict Sites Register by the Council and the developer,
Sean McHugh, was fined for breaches of planning enforcement regulations. The Council are now pursuing the developer through the courts following his refusal to pay a levy issued for the dereliction.

“I have embarked on a number of measures in recent weeks to attempt to recover this site for the Greenhills community,” said Cllr Looney. “In the short term, I have made an enforcement complaint as to the use of the site for storing building material and vehicles. I have also sought to have the appropriate development of the site included as a ‘Specific Local Objective’ of the County’s Development Plan and have asked Council officials to prepare a report on a Compulsory Purchase Order or other mechanisms to take over the site. Winning won’t come easy in this campaign - but with the togetherness of local residents, we will succeed,” noted Cllr Looney.

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You'll also find a number of posts on this blog related to McHugh's by going to http://thelooneyleft.blogspot.com/search/label/mchughs

Press Release: Labour’s Looney - "Sorry to Say I Told You So" on Derelict Site

Dermot Looney, a Labour Party candidate in the Tallaght Central ward in June’s local elections, has criticised Council and developer inaction for the continuing dereliction of the old McHugh's site in Greenhills, Dublin 12.

The old shopping centre on St James' Road was destroyed by fire in 2003 and the site has remained an eyesore for the local community ever since - despite the granting of planning permission on a number of occasions for new retail units and apartments. Looney has been organising the local community against the site for more than a year, and presented a petition to the Council and the developer demanding action signed by more than 500 local residents.

On foot of the petition the Council had requested that a wall be built by the developer as part of a clean up of the site, but, instead, a wooden fence was erected at a cheaper cost. Looney slammed this at the time saying such a public hoarding would provide a blank canvass for grafitti and vandalism - an issue which has now arisen with speed over the past fortnight.

"The hoarding remained relatively graffiti-free for the first few weeks," Looney said, "and any graffiti was daubed over. Sadly, our predictions have come true with various incidents of 'tagging' and other vandalism at the site in the last two weeks."

"Graffiti is a significant local issue in Greenhills as elsewhere and needs to be tackled by a community-centred approach incorporating the Council, the schools, the Gardaí and other community groups. But what is most pressing in Greenhills is the need to appropriately develop the old McHugh's site. Local people, many of whom are elderly, demand a shop, a post office and a pharmacy on a clean and well-presented site - and the developer concerned has proven that he is either incapable of, or unwilling to take, action. My priority will be to ensure these are delivered through the Council in the interests of the community."

Election Diary: T- 11: One Down, Thousands to Go

Yesterday's cliché about wearing out my shoes on the canvass is now available in pictorial form - just to prove it!

First things first - it has been pointed out to me that the numbering system on these election diaries is confusing, and I can see why. "T-11" would indicate eleven days left, but when writing after midnight (as I do most nights) I should really take off another day.

In other words, the polls open in a little over 10 days time - the "11" refers to the day just gone, for those not in the loop. And yes, I too am baffled. But it would be even more confusing to change it at this stage.

The Echo have put online the feature with candidate profiles they had in their print edition some weeks back. The wards are a bit mixed up but many of the candidates give an account of themselves.

We paid a quick visit to St Kevin's Well, a historical site in Kilnamanagh, at the end of this evening's canvass. Here's a small group of us outside at the end of a strong night's work, with Chris "Bond Lad" Bond in one of his customary poses.

And to round up the pics we also took a visit to the McHugh's site - you'll find more elsewhere on the blog - to check out the sadly-predicted vandalism which is increasing by the day.

The boost of the day - and one of the biggest personal thrills for me in the short campaign to date - came this evening in Kilnamanagh. I was engaged in a long and at times heated canvass with a resident as our campaign manager Paul Dillon knocked next door. Paul beckoned me in as I finished the canvass to speak to his neighbour.

The man I met told me, with great pride (both for me and him) that he had voted earlier this morning through the postal vote and had given me his number one. Knowing there is at least one number 1 beside Looney, Dermot (The Labour Party) in the system somewhere is, for some reason, both comforting and uplifting. We're looking for a couple thousand more to be elected, mind you.

PS - Belated Happy Birthday to one of our most sterling campaigners, Colm Lawless, who turned the ripe old age of 17 on Sunday. Colm has been an integral part of our campaign over the last year and mixes an extraordinary political mind for someone so young with a keen sense of politics as action. He can't vote himself - despite our efforts with the Votes@16 campaign - but is gaining so much for us with his work. Lá breithe shona duit a chara - le déanaí.

Victory for our Community: McHugh's Site Declared Derelict

Something very exciting indeed has happened in Greenhills this past fortnight.

After more than 5 years of witnessing neglect on our doorstep, we stood up as a community and said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH on the McHugh’s eyesore. The petition I launched 2 weeks ago on behalf of local residents has already amassed an extraordinary 450 responses from our community. And, finally, by working together we have had something of a victory on the site.

WHAT THE NEW COUNCIL DECISION MEANS

Responding to an Area Committee question from my colleague, Cllr Eamonn Walsh, the Council have now confirmed the site as derelict under the 1990 Derelict Sites Act. This decision leads to a number of possibilities. Firstly, the developer is now required to clean up the appearance of the site under what is called a Section 11. Secondly, the Council have confirmed that legal proceedings may occur if relevant work is not done. Thirdly, the pressure is now on both the Council and the developer to act on the site.

PRESSURE ON THE COUNCIL

I believe that in the interests of democracy and resourcing our community, the Council should purchase the site – a mechanism now made possible by declaring it officially derelict. The mass community campaign I have launched with hundreds of local residents has put further pressure on the Council to initiate this CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order). Declaring the site derelict is the first step to a CPO – but only a community-led campaign can make it a reality.

PRESSURE ON MCHUGH

Our campaign has also put the spotlight on this rogue developer and his pathetic excuses for this eyesore. Our campaign has already made the front page of the Southside People, and has had huge coverage to date in papers such as the Tallaght Voice and the Echo, meaning that McHugh is acutely aware of the powerful campaign we have built and the message we have put forward. We have joined together to demand that he cleans up the site and ensures the community services we need locally are provided – and we have made clear that we won’t wait.

BUILDING AND GROWING OUR CAMPAIGN

Many thanks to those who have already taken the time to sign the petition – many of you taking the trouble to post letters, drop them to my door by hand, or register online. If you haven’t signed yet, please take ten seconds to sign here.

I will join with Cllr Eamonn Walsh to present our petitions to McHugh and the Council in the coming days. We will continue to be in constant contact with local people in building this campaign and keeping you informed and updated. Please get in touch with me at any stage to discuss how we can advance this campaign.

Together, we will remove this eyesore and change Greenhills for the better.

"Enough is Enough" Campaign hits the front page of the Southside People

Carrying on from the post below, I know it isn't possible to read the Southside People article - the paper's simply too big for my scanner!

So you can read it here, in this different scan - or you can see it online at http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/1064/57/ .

It appeared on the front page of the 24th September issue under the headline "Council given deadline on derelict site." For coverage in the Tallaght Voice, see the post immediately before this.

Extraordinary Response to McHugh's Campaign

Greenhills, be proud!

We have had an incredible response from people in Greenhills and the wider Dublin 12 area in South Dublin County to our petition on the derelict site of the old McHugh's Shopping Centre. We delivered just over 1,000 petitions door-to-door in Greenhills Estate, Greenpark, Limekiln and Temple Manor.

From those, over the last few days, we have had approximately:
175 signatures by standard post or delivered by hand;
150 online signatories at the PetitionOnline site;
40 people contacting us by email to sign the petition;
40 freepost envelopes from the last batch delivered.

When you consider the majority of people took the trouble either to buy a stamp and post a letter, or deliver it by hand to my door, or log on online and sign up or email our campaign, you can see the serious community response there has been to this stain on our community.

There, are, we believe, much more to come. We are confident that by the end of our campaign more than 500 local people will have signed the petition demanding action either by the developer, or, as we suspect, failing any action on his part, by the Council. I have, in all honesty, never met with such a positive reaction from local people to a political campaign - mostly because people knew about me from previous canvasses and leaflets, know my record and that of the Labour Party in the area, and knew we were genuine.

This campaign has hit the headlines in all local papers. The Southside People covered it on their front page - the first time our campaign has been covered in this way. We also had a substantial presence in the Tallaght Voice (see below) and the Tallaght Echo, and were also covered in at least one other local publication. For the first time in 5 years, it seemed, our efforts have brought this issue to the fore - making, quite literally, front page news.

Other parties standing for election in Greenhills have obviously been taken aback by the huge response to the campaign I have launched. Amongst them have been the Socialist Party, who organised, over the weekend, a public meeting on the issue. This was held with approximately 70-80 people in attendance in the Greenhills Community Centre tonight.

Various political figures attended and spoke - Cllrs Mick Murphy (SP), Colm Brophy (FG), Cáit Keane (PD - soon to be something else) and Pat Dunne - blogged about here before. Pat curiously announced his intention to run next year for the People Before Profit Alliance, a Socialist Workers' Party-dominated outfit which was vehemently opposed by the last similar alliance he was involved with, the Campaign for an Independent Left. A number of local residents and people who had worked at the centre spoke passionately about the loss of local services and the dereliction Greenhills is now faced with on a daily basis.

Sadly, the meeting, in my view, was not well-organised and poorly-chaired, although from my own experience of similar meetings both locally and nationally this is a common problem. It descended into farce at one stage with the Socialist Party chair and FG Councillor Brophy engaging in an unceremonious screaming match while baffled local residents - myself included - looked on.

The SP had no particular solutions or answers to the community's concerns, other than to hope really hard that the developers take on board our views and maybe, just maybe, they might tidy up the site - perhaps, bafflingly, by building a car park. Mick Murphy scoffed at our campaign for a Compulsory Purchase Order, claiming we were "chasing rainbows." Cllr Murphy, it should be noted, has previously called for a CPO on the site on more than one occasion, and has also called for a CPO on the site of the old petrol station at the end of the Greenhills Road in Tallaght Village.

Nor did other political figures seem to have any real targets or solutions. On the conservative side, Cllrs Brophy and Keane indicated that they wished only to pursue issues through contact with the developer - similar to Murphy - or on the Council committee.

The PBP candidate called for a meeting between the developer (McHugh), Louis Fitzgerald - the publican who owns the Traders Pub next door and who has expressed an interest in the site - and local political and community representatives. I would be happy to attend such a meeting but don't believe it is, in itself, an adequate community response.

Unlike Cllr Murphy and Candidate Dunne, I believe very firmly that there is both scope and possibility, with public action, for a CPO of the site, and for its appropriate development in the needs of the community. And having spoken to plenty of residents both at and after the meeting - many of whom came to us to sign the petition - I am convinced that this approach is best for Greenhills.

People often associate groups such as the SP and the PBP with 'hard left' positions, but in truth tonight's meeting showed a bankruptcy to their arguments that was nowhere near the left. There was plenty of talk of facing down developers and speculators but, faced with an existing and mass community campaign, rooted in Greenhills and its people, the best they could do was make a few suggestions - some of them random, others bizarre - in the hope of bringing pressure to bear on the developer involved.

Don't get me wrong. I prefer to work with others on the left and baulk at any sectarian abuse or critiques of other progressives. These are two fine candidates and will appear higher up my ballot than the variety of conservative candidates in Tallaght Central next June. But as a socialist who believes both in utilising both the parliamentary - in this case, on the local Council - and the extraparliamentary, and who believes in the maintenance and development of public space and the public sphere through local democracy, the attitudes of the other 'leftists' baffled me.

Fact is that the pressure has now been put on by the power of our campaign and that, given McHugh's continual failure to act over 5 1/2 years, this community response now needs to take aim at the Council. I believe the site to be derelict and to fall under the description of dereliction outlined in the 1990 Derelict Sites Act - and Council officials, who agreed with this analysis in 2006, will now be made realise the huge outpouring of community feeling to the site's dereliction and the need for its development.

Neither Cllr Murphy, who is based on the old Tallaght Area Committee, nor Candidate Dunne have access to the relevant Council meetings at the Terenure Rathfarnham Area Committee (TRAC). My Labour colleague, Cllr Eamonn Walsh, is continuing to push the issue and is raising it again at the next TRAC meeting on October 7th. Our experience to date has shown that committee work alone cannot achieve victory. But with a true community response, both in the future of the campaign and at the polls next June, progress is more than possible.

PS - If you haven't done so - don't forget to sign!

McHugh's Eyesore - Mass Petition Launched

As a local area representative and someone who has grown up and lived all my life in Greenhills, I know full well how great a community this is. We are rightly proud of our great local achievements and the wonderful work done by volunteers at all levels to create the community spirit which has defined our area for decades.

But that community spirit can’t thrive in an area without a neighbourhood centre. We cannot prosper when faced on a daily basis by neglect and dereliction. We deserve better than more than five years of shabby boards, gruesome fencing and weeds, and an eyesore which has come to define us.

The old McHugh’s shopping centre on St James’ Road was an important resource for local people to buy their messages, to see a pharmacist and to use the post office. It was destroyed by fire in 2003 and despite plenty of applications and negotiations, the site remains a derelict mess.

Let us be clear – the developer, now known as “Property International McHugh,” is at fault for this shambles. We have waited long enough for him to take action – more than five years, in fact. Will it be another five, or longer again, before local people are rid of this eyesore? How long will it be before our neighbourhood centre is restored, and with it the vital services that older people and families need?

Myself, Eamonn Walsh and the Labour Party have stood firm on this for years. Now it’s time for local people to take this campaign one step further. Below, you will read the facts of this debacle and you will be given a chance to sign the petition. Please go here to do so.

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McHugh’s Eyesore:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Dermot Looney, Labour’s local area representative and the Greenhills candidate in next year’s local election, has launched a community campaign demanding appropriate action at the McHugh’s site. Here you can read the timeline of development on the site and sign the petition demanding action.

Timeline

12^th March 2003 – A planning application (SD03A/0143) is made to change the roof & signage on the McHugh’s Shopping Arcade. Just weeks later, the entire centre is gutted by fire.

20^th June 2003 – A planning application (SD03A/0415) to demolish the remains of the centre is made, and approved by the Council.

15^th August 2003 – McHugh’s apply (SD03A/0601) to construct a three storey building mixing retail and apartments, including a basement car park. This is first deemed invalid as there was inadequate notice of the planning application at the site. A duplicate application (SD03A/0659) for planning permission is then submitted. The development will include two storeys of apartments (8 one-bedroom, 4 two-bedroom). It is opposed by residents groups and Cllr Eamonn Walsh. Further information is requested by the Council, who then approve the application in April 2004 with 26 conditions attached.

2003-2006 – No action taken on the site at any stage. McHugh’s architects claim that “due to changes in the market place, this scheme was found to be financially unviable.” On 1/11/2005 the Council notes that it “may also consider other options .. which could include acquiring the site by Compulsory Purchase Order or the imposition of a levy.”

4^th April 2006 – Council note that “it is proposed to commence the procedure to acquire the site by Compulsory Purchase Order under the Derelict Sires Act 1990,” at the Terenure Rathfarnham Area Committee (TRAC) meeting.

5^th April 2006 – Another application (SD06A/0248) is made. It will also have three storeys, but this time there will be 10 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom apartments and 1 three-bedroom apartment. The Council note that “the residential density of the proposed scheme is excessive” and demand a reduction in the number of apartments. McHugh’s do not bother to meet this demand and the application is deemed withdrawn on December 4^th.

5^th September 2006 – Cllr Eamonn Walsh asks the Council to finalise the CPO. The Council respond that “it is intended to initiate the procedure to acquire this site by Compulsory Purchase Order under the provision of the Derelict Sites Act, 1990. Site drawings are now being finalised and the Compulsory Purchase Order procedure will commence thereafter.”

30^th January 2007 – Yet another application (SD07A/0062) is made. It has three storeys with retail units on the ground floor, but with the Council’s restrictions it has 15 apartments on the top two floors (12 two-bedroom units and 3 one-bedroom units). It is granted in April. The Council requests more than €250,000 to be furnished for Council infrastructure and facilities.

6^th February 2007 – The Council finally confirm the site as ‘derelict’ at a TRAC meeting.

2^nd October 2007 – Council note that “the developer of the land in question has indicated that he proposes to commence development in late October/early November 2007.”

6^th November 2007 – Cllr Eamonn Walsh tells the Council that “In view of the failure of the developer of the derelict shopping centre site to proceed with the development as agreed last May that the C.P.O. be re-introduced and to state that local residents are sick and tired of the false promises as they look onto a most offensive site in the heart of its community.” The Council take no action.

11^th January 2008 - a small commencement fee is paid with commencement of work due to start on 28^th January 2008 and a proposed end date of 30/1/2009.

6^th May 2008 – Cllr Eamonn Walsh tells the Council that “this site has devalued the properties in the general area and has devalued the quality of life of the whole community and to be arranged as soon as possible.” The Council replies, saying that because a skip was removed, a gate was replaced and walls and fences were repaired, “the site is no longer considered derelict.”

12^th June 2008 – Dermot Looney complains to Council that the use of the site as a storage ground for Dublin Bus is in breach of the planning permission. The Council reject the complaint.

12^th September 2008 – Despite claims to the contrary, bus stops and other material remains stored at the site. No development work has started – 5 years on.