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Greens Oppose Affordable Housing Scheme.
Read more about: Green Party, Housing
Here is a Headline that might well be in tomorrows papers. Greens Oppose Affordable Housing Scheme. This coming from a statement “Housing plans for Liffey Valley an act of vandalism - Gogarty“.
Green Party Tourism Spokesperson Paul Gogarty TD today called on the Government to intervene to save an integral part of the Liffey Valley from housing development.
South Dublin County Council has recommended a proposal by the Affordable Homes Partnership, of which its County Manager Tom Horan is a member, to construct 1,600 units of up to three storeys at St Edmundsbury*, near Lucan village.
Now 70% of these homes are going to be affordable homes or 1120 affordable homes or about 37% of the affordable housing that was built in 2006. The Greens oppose this building because it is in the Liffey Valley which they believe should be preserved for future generations and turned into a sort of wildlife reserve instead.
Future generations will curse the politicians who rezoned this land.
While the current generation will curse the politicians who didn’t allow them to raise the future generations in houses.
The part of the press release that the papers will probably ignore is this.
There are other lands available for affordable housing, which I would wholeheartedly support. The issue of a required school site for St Andrews can also be sorted out separately from this development through a compulsory purchase order. But there is only one Liffey Valley. The Government, on behalf of the State, should pay off Ballymore and develop Edmundsbury as part of a wider Liffey Valley national or regional park stretching from Islandbridge to Straffan.
Because it puts the proposal in some sort of context. But still they are opposing an affordable housing scheme. This statement could damage the Greens in many part of Dublin if it is spun in the incorrect way indeed it could damage them if taken perfect correctly. Many people are looking for housing complaining that the government are not doing enough in this area. And now we have one scheme being blocked by one of the main parties. It will be interesting to see if it will do damage or like most press releases disappear into the ether.
What do people think. Trees before People?
Nice to see you acknowledge the context but went with the sensationalist headline anyway. No doubt the print media will do the same, but I thought we were supposed to be above that
Another point Gogarty makes in the press release is that the developer will make his profit on this scheme regardless of the 70% allocation for affordable housing. I don’t know a great deal about this case, but it seems the developer is quite cleverly engineering a old school west Dublin rezoning windfall, except in this case the “bribe” is the affordable housing. He’ll make a massive profit because the price he paid for the land reflected its agricultural zoning. The Council will have to cover the cost of building the affordable units (including the land cost), so he won’t lose a penny there, and he’ll make a fortune on the “non-affordable” portion of the development. And the best thing is that anyone who objects is “putting trees before people”!
If nobody is allowed to object to developments on sustainability grounds because they provide affordable housing, then you can expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing in the future.
No doubt the print media will do the same, but I thought we were supposed to be above that
That was supposed to be the point of the beginning of the post. I was toying with “What will be in the papers tomorrow”. But that was to long.
Ah no, fair enough, I see what you were trying to do there.
Fact is that a man refusing an offer of sex from a woman does not make him gay, any more than opposing a housing development in area X with an affordable component means that you are against all affordable housing.
Where did I say that the greens are against affordable housing Dan please point out that part of my piece and not just pointing out what you think you see.
If a man refused an offer of sex it would not make him gay but it would mean.
“Man refuses Sex Offer”
would be a valid headline.
It so happens that the Green Party are holding a public meeting on affordability and availability of housing in Dublin this coming Tuesday. It’s at 8pm on Tuesday 23rd January in the Cultivate Centre in Temple Bar. Full details are available on John Gormley’s site here: A home of your own? - public meeting on housing.
Simon, I was talking about the more general press coverage of the issue than your particular post. I should have made that clearer. Still, I like the analogy I’ve made up and might use it again!