The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, is pursuing his commitment to devolving power to local communities… by further reducing what little power County and City Councillors currently have. That’s right. The Minister has drawn up amendments to the planning legislation which will limit Councillors’ abilities to approve development plans which are adjudged (I don’t yet know how this is to be decided) not to comply with the terms of the National Spatial Strategy. Other changes to the legislation will make approval of retentions more difficult obtain. If I get any more details I’ll post them.
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I read in the Independent that Lidl are considering taking a lease on the former Habitat store on St. Stephen’s Green near the top of Dublin’s Grafton Street. This, after the toney Abercrombie + Fitch decided the area wasn’t shmancy enough for their line of duds.
Anyway, the Indo says that An Taisce are lining themselves up to do what they can to block Lidl’s arrival.
‘An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland that deals with sensitive planning issues, are opposed to Lidl leasing the illustrious property. An Taisce spokesman Kevin Duff said upmarket retailers, rather than discount supermarkets, were required to make the street more attractive. "The aim of the conservation area initiative for Grafton Street was to improve the tone of the area with an increased number of so-called 'higher-order' shops," Mr Duff said. "If Lidl leases the building in question, it will be a step back from whatever progress they had made."
‘An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland that deals with sensitive planning issues, are opposed to Lidl leasing the illustrious property. An Taisce spokesman Kevin Duff said upmarket retailers, rather than discount supermarkets, were required to make the street more attractive.
"The aim of the conservation area initiative for Grafton Street was to improve the tone of the area with an increased number of so-called 'higher-order' shops," Mr Duff said. "If Lidl leases the building in question, it will be a step back from whatever progress they had made."
Now, this kind of thing makes me feel real uncomfortable. Architectural Area designation is intended to protect the architectural fabric and overall character of parts of town - no matter what economic demographic they are located in - which have exceptional architectural qualitiy. To abuse the conservation legislation simply to attract 'upmarket' retailers and 'higher-order'' shops is perverse.
I suppose we can take it now that if ‘higher-order’ is the technical definition for shops which are posh, exclusive and unwelcoming of North Siders, it's safe to presume that the other technical term An Taisce are fond of - 'unsustainable' - simply means houses designed not to their taste.
Did Communications Minister Noel Dempsey more than hint yesterday that while the Government remains fully committed to the completion of the Gort by-pass, the project may be about to slip down it's list of NDP priorities in these money scarce times? What does this mean for the various repaving/landscaping initiatives which some of you – in heated emails to me after the post I ran on Gort about a week ago – said were due to be carried out when the by pass was complete?
Do you remember that whole thing where I couldn’t buy a VW Eos because Tadgh had bossed Mike and Mike had bossed me into not buying it because Mike said that Tadgh said it was a bit 'girly' even though I had never even met Tadgh?
Well, I went ahead and bought the Eos. It took a while, but Mike is over it now and we’re more or less back to the way things were. Nevertheless, we decided to take our time before Mike finally got around to introducing me to Tadgh.
Well, the big intro happened yesterday. And I have to say Tadgh is a very sound lad and only a tiny bit intimidating. As it happens, (I’m being serious about this) he’s building a totally carbon zero, eco friendly, passive, low energy, locally sourced, double A rated, triple glazed, hemp and goats-hair house for himself on a very nice site in the country. So the three of us drove down to see it yesterday… in Tadgh’s double turbo, G(-) rated, 650 bhp, 48 valve Golf GT TDI DSG. I do declare, he could probably heat his house for all eternity for the carbon we consumed going to visit it. (Thankfully, Tadgh is an excellent driver because, at the speed we were travelling, anyone less skilled would have spun us into oblivion. But the experience did prove useful in confirming something I’ve always been curious about: yes, it is possible to have a conversation in a car when you’re travelling faster than the speed of sound.)