| Residents baffled by decision to shelve ice rink |
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| Thursday, 02 October 2008 | |
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Residents in South Dublin say they cannot understand why Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council decided to shelve a plan to erect an ice rink in their area, claiming the development could have easily been accommodated at an alternative location nearby. The council succeeded in placing the ice rink beside Booterstown DART station car park for a period of four months from October 2007 to January 2008 which attracted over 48,000 paying customers. This year, the local authority again proposed to erect the temporary ice rink at the same location over the same period, using the part 8 planning process. But a massive number of local residents objected to the proposals, claiming they could damage an environmentally sensitive area that was designated a Special Protection Area by Environment Minister John Gormley (GP) earlier this year. Included in this SPA is the Booterstown Bird Sanctuary at Williamstown Creek, which is within metres of the site the council had earmarked for the ice rink. Residents also maintained that the development could have instead been facilitated at a nearby location known locally as the Circus Field. Overwhelming The council received 411 submissions on the proposals with the overwhelming majority objecting to the scheme. Over 75 per cent of the submissions suggested that the council should proceed with the development at the Circus Field. However, after a meeting between council management and Blackrock councillors recently, the local authority said the proposal would not go ahead this year as a sponsorship deal with a private company did not materialise. In addition, the council stated that they did not think the planning process would be completed before the ice rink was due to be erected next month. In response to the council decision, the Combined Booterstown Residents’ Association (COBRA) said that while they were pleased the council had decided to “abort” the development, they did not understand why the local authority did not proceed with it at the Circus Field location. “We cannot understand why the council did not place the ice rink in the nearby Circus Field, which is available… rather than unnecessarily losing more green space in the park,” a COBRA statement reads. Cllr Gene Feighery (GP) said: “The majority of residents who made submissions did not want the development to be cancelled but just wanted it moved to the Circus Field.” In a presentation made to councillors in February of this year, the senior executive officer at the Culture, Community Development and Amenities Department revealed that the council had made a massive financial loss of almost e320,000 on the operation of the ice rink last year. |
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