[Article] Herald article on Milltown Luas

[ThomasJ]

From the Evening Herald - 21/5/2010
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/c...t-2189088.html

By Cormac Murphy


Friday May 21 2010

A councillor has criticised residents of a leafy Dublin suburb for preventing access to a Luas station through their estate.

Residents in Mount St Annes in Milltown are refusing to let the public get to the local Luas station via their complex.

Labour councillor Dermot Lacey has condemned the move, saying people have to make long detours as a result.

"There is a spine road running through the estate to the stop. Access to the station from this point is only available to residents using a swipe card and is denied to the vast majority of residents of Milltown," Mr Lacey told the Herald.

"The residents in the rest of Milltown have to go half-a-mile longer to get to the station. I think that's wrong," he said.

Mr Lacey said there is no restriction preventing entry on to the Mount St Annes road itself by people not living there.

However, this makes it "doubly annoying", as people who do not know the area would assume there is pedestrian access to the Luas stop, he added.

At the February meeting of the Dublin Council's south east area committee, the issue was raised through a joint motion from Cllr Lacey and Cllr Oisin Quinn.

A meeting with representatives of Mount St Annes followed on April 14.

In attendance were city council officials, councillors and a representative of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA).

However, in a subsequent letter to the council, the Mount St Annes Management Company made clear its position.

"The board (of the management company) unanimously agreed that the owners and residents of Mount St Annes would not agree to allow public access through their development to the Luas station," the company stated.

Discuss

It "respectfully declined" the councillors' request for a further meeting to discuss the issue and "thus consider this matter closed".

The management company did not reply when a comment was requested.

The Mount St Annes land was bought by Park Developments from the Sisters of Charity for €10.6m in the 1990s.

The first units in the exclusive estate did not come on to the market until autumn 2001.

It combined the construction of new apartments and houses with the restoration of a convent and school.

Before the scheme was built, the Milltown and Ranelagh Alliance of Residents' Associations had objected to the plans.

comurphy@herald.ie

- Cormac Murphy

[markpb]

The local authority granted planning permission for a gated estate - they can't come back later and complain that there's a gate in the way.

Yes, it's inconvenient and yes it's bad for for pedestrian movement but because of the planning permission agreed between the authority and developer, the management company is responsible for members of the public in the estate. If I was on their board, I'd probably do the same thing.

[Colm Moore]

RPA could have declined the residents access to their lands unless it was open to all.

[Colm Moore]

Actually, for walking purpose, its rather moot. The distance via Mount St. Anne's is almost exactly the same as via Milltown Road, although there is the matter of the hills on Milltown Road route.

See here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showp...1&postcount=14

[dowlingm]

The government can tax credit cards - maybe it should find a way to tax swipe cards