| Leaving the bad days behind |
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| Thursday, 13 March 2008 | |
 Residents of the once notorious St Theresa’s Gardens flats complex in Dolphin’s Barn are looking forward to the future thanks to a major regeneration project.Locals are now on a mission to sort out a lot of the social problems that still affect the community before the re-development project is completed. The flats in St Theresa’s Gardens have been compared with other apartment complexes such as Ballymun and Fatima Mansions due to problems with drugs and unemployment. However, a regeneration process currently underway, being driven by residents and Dublin City Council, is aimed at ridding the area of the persistent social problems that have dogged the flats since they were built in the 1950s. The regeneration of St Theresa’s Gardens will involve the construction of a total of 600 residential units consisting of 300 private units and 150 affordable and 150 social units on the site. There will be a two-hectare park with football pitches and playground created in the complex and the apartment units will be sited around the park. In addition there will be a crèche, and retail and commercial buildings included in the overall design. The council also hopes to secure the social and affordable units under legislation contained in Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 from two private developments in the area, pending planning permission. Developers have also applied for planning permission for hundreds of residential units on the nearby Players Wills and Bailey Gibson sites. Applications for these sites are currently on appeal to An Bord Pleanála and decisions on both schemes are likely to be made later this month. The city council is currently considering five development companies to carry out the regeneration of St Theresa’s Gardens. It is hoped that work on the project will begin in late 2009 and residents should begin moving into their new homes 18 months later. Seamus Sheppard has lived in Theresa’s Gardens for the majority of the last 30 years and is a member of the regeneration board established by the city council in 2005. He said the regeneration board and the St Theresa’s Gardens Community Forum - comprising residents, Dublin City Council, the gardaí, the HSE and the Donore Drugs Taskforce - are attempting to improve social conditions in the flats complex before residents are rehoused in the new development. “We hope to solve a lot of these social problems here before the complex is built,” he said. “We are going to get FAS in to train people and we also have an agreement that the builders will have to employ some people from the flats even if it is in labouring or security. “In the meantime we are trying to turn the area around by getting residents into the new complex and getting rid of the drug pushers.” He added: “We are trying to get employment and proper playgrounds and football pitches for the younger people. There are 10 residents on our committee and we keep the rest of them informed. We have regular fliers and magazines so everyone knows what’s going on and we keep them up to date all the time.” Stephen Shiels is Dublin City Council’s housing manager for the St Theresa’s regeneration project. He said the creation of a contract between the city council, the eventual developers and residents - known as the community charter - was a key ingredient to the success of the project. He explained that the community charter set out the aims of the project and the elements to be included in it as agreed by the parties involved. “The community charter is important because it was developed in partnership with the community and was an opportunity for them to participate in the development,” he said. Cllr Críona Ní Dhalaigh (SF) said she believed that if properly planned and managed, the regeneration could bring about real community gain for many of the current residents of St Theresa’s Gardens “making it a better place to live, learn and grow”. “Consultation with residents is paramount to the success of this regeneration and they must be included in all decision making,” she said. “We congratulate the pre-regeneration board for all the hard work they put into ensuring that the demand for regeneration was met and that the residents were at the centre of the process.” |
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Developed by Kevin Flynn