OMG WHTD?
Might we see the economic collapse blowing this one out of the water leaving a gawd awful mess for the locals.
They have sacked the Community Liason Staff already and have disabled the phone system .
I believe this is a material breach of the Planning Conditions but An Bord Pleanála will not enforce its own conditions in any way .
Tough *** Greystones , you will only ever have a few lumps of gravel and concrete to show for all this .
I dunno it looks worse than that, from a distance what look to be the contents of a container ship shimmering in the sun along the coast rise above everything else is what I saw and then on the ground hoarding in front of the harbor you can’t see the sea.
Its fucking miserable looking so it it.
The economics of this development no longer make any sence.
During the planning phase (at the height of the property bubble) the people were told that the number of apartments to be built on the public beach could not be reduced as it would not be financially viable.
We are now in the position where the expected selling prices included in the developers financial projections should now be reduced by at least 50% (if they are salable at all).
Wicklow County Council negociated this PPP with Sispar and must now ensure that the contracted is enforced - even if it means substantial losses for SISKS and Park Developments.
It seems that activity on the building of the breakwaters at Greystones harbour has virtually ceased over the last 4 weeks. With the project already 25% behind schedule the costs will have greatly increased. Coupled with the collapse in demand for property the project is in major trouble. Given the credit squeeze the funding must also be uncertain. The finance people at Sisks and Park Developments must now be reassessing their options with the project. Hopefully Wicklow County Council have a watertight contract with the developers which will ensure that the mess in the harbour will be sorted out even if the apartments are not built.
Do you have any inside information on the activity levels at the harbour, or is that just from observing it ? As a resident, my impression for quite a while (c. 3-4 months) has been that they’re just marking time down there :- that they’ve had minimal levels of equipment and staff meandering around to give an impression of activity.
Indeed. This time last year, the question was could they sell the residential/commercial components at a price sufficent to cover the public works part of the project.
Now the question is can they sell the residential/commercial elements at all.
I’m sure the highly effective and efficient employees of WCC have considered all possible angles. Individuals of their calibre and excellence would never leave the public interest unprotected in such a vital matter. (In accordance with Irish libel law, I should point out that the preceeding sentences may or may not contain an element of sarcasm).
How the fuck is it that 6000 objections were ignored without being splashed over the broadsheets??, this IS news, this is democracy being pissed all over.
6000!!..this isnt a few local crackpots…this is a massive amount of people objecting, thus when I think noting can outrage me anymore another fucking gem like this surfaces.
There is so much endemic corruption in this place does an honest man have a fighting chance of success based on merit and hard work alone?
Judging by past experience in West Dublin and Kildare, if the Council is mostly made up of Lab, FG and FF councillors, then I can’t see that happening.
More importantly for me, look at the artist’s impression.
greystonesharbour.ie/images/banner.jpg
There’s no vomit emoticon, but that’s what I’d like to express. Yet more stale UGLY concrete neo-barbarism architecture in what is an architecturally VICTORIAN area! Who comes up with this unliveable tripe? 
Couldn’t agree more. It was such a beautiful harbour - not designer but really quaint. Ok it could have done with a bit of a facelift - but it should have been in keeping with its original look. The planning laws in this country are a disgrace.
For the record, as a resident I agree with the previous posters regarding the project’s entire concept. It’s an abomination.
The constant bleating was always that there was no money to fix the existing harbour, and this was the only way of financing anything. My reply to that was that I’d finance the operation to dynamite what was there and we’d just let it revert to natural sea front.
I can’t wait for the local elections, when the local councillors who supported it come calling. I’ll take some satisfaction in looking those idiots in the eye and telling them I’ll be voting in whatever fashion is most likely to make them lose their seats.
Good to hear. Seat loss is the language they understand, and too few people remember that.
Greystones - Marina Development will be a total eyesore - if it’s anything like the artists impression ( which usually tend to look better than the real thing!)
No doubt in years to come there will be tales of brown envelopes & backhanders etc
Apparently in the light of the collapse of the property market and the banking crisis senior people in WCC are very concerned about the future prospects of this development.
At this stage its time for the number crunchers to identify the option of least loss for the developers. Now that the banks have stopped funding speculative developments the funding for this scheme must be seriously in question.
I have passed this development many times over the past year and I would agree that the activity levels have fallen off substantially. I think this happened much further back than 4 weeks ago - it seemed to me the activity levels, for what is supposed to be a major construction project, fell off some time around end september/start of october 2008. There hardly seems to be any more than a dozen men on site. What surprises me is that there hasn’t been more concern expressed locally at the lack of progress. Usually the local rags and pressure groups would be on to this by now. The only thing i have seen from Wicklow County Council has blamed bad weather/storms??? for lack of progress. I would have thought that an allowance would have been made in the original project plan for a certain percentage of lost days due to weather.
Councillor Derek Mitchell in his latest “Local Update” now claims that “In the Autumn an Easterly Gale, together with a high spring tide, caused some damage to the partially completed walls. When the storm struck the blocks had been laid, but the outer rock and antifier protection had not been completed causing some blocks to shift. Lifting and relaying them has delayed progress by 4 weeks but it is hoped this time can be made up. A red barge has been brought up to speed up laying the blocks and protecting them with rocks. A small temporary pier has been constructed, adjoining the Kish base, to provide protection for the barge from medium force storms.”
The “Gale” which exposed the serious design flaw with the breakwater construction was nowhere near force 10. Data at Dublin airport shows that the gale was force 5-6 with only the highest gust reaching the bottom end of a force 8.
So a midly windy day in August caused the blocks in the breakwater to move to the extent that they were then lifted and put back into position. The basic engineering of the breakwater construction is seriously flawed and has already resulted in significant delays and substantial additional costs. And this is in an environment where there will be no demand for the structures they are planning to build in the sea at Greystones.
According to electionsireland.org, there was a turnout of just over 8,000 (8,062 to be precise) in Greystones in the local elections of 2004. A quota was 1,613.
And 6,000 objections, many of them from groups as well as individuals I’m sure.
Hmmm…
Not to mention having Jonah, Sorry, Dick Roche, Minister for failed Referendums as their TD. 
I am so annoyed. I was born in Greystones. I am sure my grandparents are turning in their graves now
Who are the obvious beneficiaries from this project? Was the land publicly owned (and for how long) when planning was sought?