SARA News

Editor Pat Naismith
Vol2 No.1 Date. 06/01/01

What The Papers Say

By MICHAEL LAVERY
The Evening Herald

RESIDENTS SAY NEW HOUSING PLANNED FOR STEPASIDE VILLAGE 'PREMATURE'

NEW housing developments planned for Stepaside Village "are premature" until roads, water supplies and transport are in place, residents insisted today.

Co. Dublin's last remaining village is set to see massive expansion over the next ten years, boosting population levels from 8,000 to over 20,000.

But residents fear the area will be another Tallaght with better facilities taking years to be established long after estates are developed.

Bobby Gahan of the Stepaside Area Residents Association said: "You would think we would have learned from 'Tallaght's experience.

CASCADE
Residents say they are not against housing, but insist it can only take place in line with infrastructural development.

"There is currently a cascade of applications for housing in the Stepaside area," Mr Gahon said.

Work on new water reservoirs in the area will involve removing 6,000 cubic metres of stone out of the mountainside yet the roads are the same as in the day of the horse and cart, he asserted.

"In the mornings it can take 40 minutes to go the one and half miles from Stepaside to the Irish Management Institute at Sandyford," he added.

"Our primary concern is that Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co. Council has got to accept that major development is premature until the roads are in."

New developments recently lodged with the Co Council include:

Castlethorn Construction is seeking permission for a 38O-house estate and mini village on a 36-acre site at Newtown Little, to include a leisure centre, financial and retail units.

The Co Council has just given permission for another development on the Enniskerry Road to go ahead. It includes 65 apartments and a mix of three, four and five bed homes.

Deane Homes Ltd. has applied for permission to build 178 five, four and three-bed homes and almost 100 houses on the former Greenfield Land site on Kilgobbin Road.