There was an article in the Times today that said Dunnes Stores has shelved plans to open a store in Drogheda. Wonder where that is. Could it be at the new Grangerath shopping centre where it was announced as anchor tenant in September last year.
If it is that is serious.
I think it is quite amazing how the state is hoovering up empty buildings in East Meath.
1./ An empty block of newly built apartments is “purchased” for a new Garda Station (one wonders if the public procurement rules were followed here).
2./ Negotiations to turn the Alverno house into a health centre broke down a couple of weeks ago
3./ The latest is that the Neptune, which has been closed for quite some time and the owner of which unsuccessfully sought its demolition to build apartments is to be the new secondary school.
It’s a bit odd, particularly in an area that has seen such a massive construction boom that defunct and empty buildings would be bought or leased by the state.
And still the government tries to wrap its head around the idea of building schools. I don’t think the government meant the buildings that couldn’t sell.
See here.
http://buckplanning.blogspot.com/2008/08/developers-could-be-forced-to-provide.html
This is too late. The days of massive housing developments is well over, there will never be anything of the scale of the last 10 years because of the financial meltdown and the unfeasibility of commuting. Therefore developers handing over school sites for massive rezoning is a thing of the past.
We need to apply ourselves to figuring out how the state can build schools.
Well, it’s day three of the kids Summer camp in Jackie Skelly’s gym. The service provided is truly a disgrace. We already blogged (here and here) about the serious health and safety issues and also about the lack of managerial supervision and customer service at the so-called gym.
It now transpires that the advertised syllabus is so-far not being provided as promised on the brochure which offers:
Fitness&Sports, Drama, Fancy Dress, Swimming, Music, Arts&Crafts
The child in question reports that there was no Drama, Fancy Dress and no music. Arts and crafts is merely colouring, no evidence of any projects made has been brought home. Sports and fitness is limited to kids games. There was no dress up or drama.
So not only have they left kids unsupervised, have no manager on duty, they are not even providing the advertised service.
The place is a disgrace. All they want is your money.
We blogged yesterday about Jackie Skelly’s gym in Drogheda and how they left young children, including pre-schoolers unsupervised when a Summer Camp leader failed to turn up. We noted that there was no manager on duty either in the morning or later that evening.
Well my acquaintance’s friend went to pick up her child today on the second day of the camp and when she arrived there were no children around. So she entered the gym only to find her own child in the swimming pool on her own with no life guard on duty. This child is barely 4.
She then went into the changing rooms to find the children attempting to dry themselves and get dressed without any adult present to help or otherwise supervise the children. I must stress the Summer Camp takes children as young as three.
Again there was no manager or other responsible person on duty.
Jackie Skelly’s gym in Drogheda should be avoided at all costs. Their procedures and management practices are fundamentally unsafe for children. They do not appear to operate their gyms under any supervision and one has to question the overall health and safety standards of a gym which operates with no managerial supervision.
The place is a disgrace and should be closed until the serious issues are resolved.
My acquaintance will be making a complaint to the relevant authorities.
An acquaintance of mine brought her pre-school child to a Summer Camp in Jackie Skelly’s gym in Drogheda this morning. When she arrived it turned out that the leader of the Summer camp was late since her car broke down.
All well and good except an hour later the leader had not shown up and there was no message from her to say when she would arrive.
Meanwhile there were quite a few kids aged from three up who were dropped off by their parents left waiting in the gym with no member of staff assigned to supervise them. Some of the kids were upset and did not understand why there was no Summer camp. Their was a receptionist around the corner, but not in view of the children.
It is a serious safety issue that young children could be left unsupervised in this place, any of these kids could have hurt themselves or wandered off quicker than you can say Madeleine McCann.
There was no manager or other responsible person on duty. The manager was not due in until midday.
My acquaintance rang this evening after 7 and was told that the manager, Christian, did not come in “for personal reasons” and that the person in charge, Ian, had left at 7. So again there was nobody in charge.
It is a disgrace that they can organise a Summer camp and then have no plan for supervising young children, no one in charge of the premises and evading dealing with the serious health and safety issues that arise.
This place doesn’t deserve to be in business if it cannot look after their most vulnerable customers.
It looks like the NRA have appealed to An Bord Pleanala over the Drogheda United Stadium.
http://www.eleven-a-side.com/eircomleague/news.asp?n=33184
We already pointed out that the NRA strongly objected at the planning stage, but anyone who lives around here knows that Meath County Council knows best when it comes to planning. That’s why they ignored reasonable pleas that the stadium and shopping centre would bugger up the M1 and the R152 junction. But hey, that’s somebody else’s problem.
This will be first of many appeals by the NRA against Meath County Council decisions, but if they are worried about the stadium, wait until they see the alleged 5000 houses. There is a real possibility that the whole deal will fall apart and Drogheda will be putting down a couple of jumpers in the park next season. It was reported in the Phoenix this week that the lead developer has left the project.
Viable national road network or obscene housing sprawl: it will be interesting to see which way the dice fall.
PS: Looking forward to the Drogladytes’ comments.
The Irish Times reports today that a study is going to be undertaken to assess the problems faced by Leinster Commuter towns.
Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment will examine problems facing inhabitants of commuter towns in the province during a series of visits also to towns including Mullingar, Balbriggan, Carlow, Drogheda, Gorey, Naas and Navan. The delegation intends to evaluate how towns in the Dublin commuter-belt zone have dealt with common challenges facing them in promoting economic growth, local enterprise and trade.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. One wonders if they will find it isn’t such a good idea to rezone hundreds of acres and hand out planning permission for 1000’s of houses when there are no jobs in an area. Perhaps not.
A commenter helpfully pointed out that there is a “mobility” plan included with the plans for the new Drogheda Stadium/Shopping center. It looks odd to say the least.
I don’t know about you but the simulation of the stadium makes it look mighty far away from anywhere, except a motorway. In other words this is a car focused development. So you’d think there would be plenty of parking, but think on again!
The stadium as designed and including the retail requires 5310 car parking spaces according to the Meath County Development Plan. However only 1809 spaces will be built (40% of need) and even better on match day, there are only 300 spaces for football fans. The rest will have to use “public transport” or take the bike. They are saying they are going to have space for 500 bike parking spaces. Other than that there will be free shuttle buses from the train and bus station.
Drivers will be expected to park in the town. The mobility plan does not suggest where a potential 2000 extra cars will park in the town or how the town itself can cope with such a large influx of traffic. If there is a capacity crowd in the stadium then 9000 people will have to get a bus, walk or cycle out to Drog land. Can you imagine doing that in the rain? I can’t
Can you imaging some bewildered Sligo Town fan arriving in our fair city after a 3 hour drive accross Ireland on a wet Monday in January and looking for the shuttle bus? I can’t
Interesting one to watch. I’ll eat my hat if it works out like they said. They are building beside the motorway interchange but not allowing car access. There is something wrong with that.
The National Roads Authority don’t like it either. This is what they had to say:
[The NRA] Objects as is concerned that the development will compromise the performance of the M1 and future national roads projects. The application as submitted indicates the current junction with the M1 will be unable to support the traffic generated by the development and will require upgrade. As this junction is subject to a PPP contract arrangement this will be complex, difficult and expensive to achieve.
Further information does not address the issues raised in its previous correspondence dated 21st September 2007. The development would compromise the M1 and future national road projects. Proposal is considered premature. The NRA therefore strongly recommends that the Planning Authority reject the current proposal.
They are basically saying they don’t really own the road so if Drogheda United fuck up the junction with traffic then it’s going to cost someone big to put in a new junction, i.e. bigger than if the road was owned by the state.
Needless to say Meath County Council blindly ignored this.
Good documentary. Of course nothing like this could ever happen here.
