At the last meeting of Fingal County Council I tabled an emergency motion in support of the Howth Sea Scouts. The attempts by the government to evict them from the premises that they fundraised for and built on the West Pier in Howth are outrageous.
The emergency motion was passed unanimously and all five local councillors and also independent councillor Dave O Connor spoke in support.
The motion reads as follows:
That Fingal County Council calls on the government to intervene to halt the eviction of the Howth Sea Scouts from their building in Howth harbour which they fundraised and paid for and have occupied for the last 22 years
On October 15th at a meeting of the Fingal Malahide Howth Area Committee proposals were brought by Council management to put on public display plans to remove a playing pitch used by St Sylvester’s GAA club and to replace it with an extended car park while introducing pay and display at the rate of one euro an hour.
I opposed the bringing forward of these proposals on the grounds that there had been no consultation with St Sylvester’s GAA club and that the proposal to remove open amenity space and replace it with pay for parking was regressive and would damage irreversibly an amenity for local children and residents.
I received support in my opposition from my Labour colleague Cllr. Peter Coyle. However as the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael councillors were in support of initiating the planning process for this proposal by putting it on public display we were unable to stop this planning process been initiated.
Following a public outcry against these proposals I welcome the u-turn by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael councillors in recent weeks. However it is regrettable that they did not support me in blocking the initiation of the planning process for this pay and display car park in October. If they had supported my stance at the time we could have saved scarce Council resources which are been wasted with this public display process as well as the time and energy of local people who are worried that this destruction of our open space might go ahead.
