8/12/2019 Sisks latest plan for construction at Greystones Harbour it's to start next week. Or is it?

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Sisk!s latest plan for construction at Greystones Harbour

For the first time since the harbour project began back in late 2007, the Agenda for theGreystones Municipal Council meeting this evening (Tuesday 29 July) does not include theharbour as an item on the agenda.

It simply is not there.

One might ask, why?

Is it because the entire board of Sisk is on holidays? Or Mr Sean Quirke, the WCC directorof services in charge of the project?

And if so, is either of these reasons enough to stop councillors from discussing thecontinued lack of progress at the harbour and the latest of Sisk!s broken promises?

Strangely enough, just recently GUBOH has come into possession of an interestingdocument prepared on the instructions of the Sisk group for the company!s architects.

This is Sisk!s new scheme for building the housing and other elements at the harbour,initially promised for the second quarter of 2014 now just about elapsed with no signof any activity and later shifted to later in 2014.

One thing odd about this comprehensive plan is that it has a start date, and that date issoon.

The start date for Sisk!s new construction plan is 5 August 2014 next Tuesday, one

week after the Municipal Council meets without the harbour on its agenda.

Is this a coincidence, or is it the actual reason that the harbour has been omitted as anitem on the council agenda for the first time in seven years?

No doubt councillors will want an answer to that question tonight.

8/12/2019 Sisks latest plan for construction at Greystones Harbour it's to start next week. Or is it?

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The photo attached shows the first page of the document to show a start date, page 12.We have included the full document in our files, both on our website and Facebook page.

But councillors will need to ask a lot more questions to get to the bottom of the manyissues raised by this scheduling document, which seems, to say the least of it, a little

optimistic about the start date, seeing as none of the preparatory site work usuallyessential before beginning a project of this magnitude has been done, and there has beenno sign of any staff moving onto the site.

The first such issue is the proposed construction period.

This is 61 months, or FIVE years and one month.

If the work did start on 5 August 2014, and all went to plan, then the build would not be becomplete until September/October 2019.

Let!s just recall that Sisk have been blighting Greystones with their presence since 7August 2007 when Bord Pleanala finally approved their project. That!s two days short ofseven years on their supposed start date next week.

Or 84 months. Add 61, and you get 145 months, or a total of 12 years and three months.

The original schedule from start to finish of the project was to be 52 months, or four yearsand four months. It should have been finished entirely in March or April 2012.

So if they did start next Tuesday, we could expect to have Sisk in Greystones for close on

three times the original planned period 2.8 times longer, to be exact.

Is this acceptable?

Well, on the one hand a start would be very welcome. But the timescale is absurd fivewhole years and one month to build 375 dwellings and 6,245 sq m of commercial space!

The second issue is: what happens to the site during this five year-plus period?

We!ve already had Sisk here for seven years.

At every turn, they have refused and resisted every proposal every reasonable proposal for a comprehensive approach to remedying the desolate and ugly character of the sitewhile the community waits for them to get their finger out.

They resisted taking down the hoardings that gave GUBOH its name and raison d!etre

They resisted opening the south harbour to the public until the pressure from GUBOHbecame too much for them

They resisted any measure to put some lipstick on their ugly gorilla to help thebusinesses whose trade was stricken due to the repulsiveness of the site and thedisgraceful state of the last stretch of the Cliff Walk from Bray

They refused to continue discussions with Stephen Donnelly TD and Cllr Tom Fortunelast December, when their tame councillors sabotaged efforts to get everyone around atable under the auspices of the old Town Council discussions which might have led to

8/12/2019 Sisks latest plan for construction at Greystones Harbour it's to start next week. Or is it?

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8/12/2019 Sisks latest plan for construction at Greystones Harbour it's to start next week. Or is it?

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Does WCC want that?

Does GUBOH want that?

The answer, in all cases, must be NO.

GUBOH certainly does not want it our attitude is that the sooner Sisk start, finish it, andare gone the hell out of Greystones, the better it will be for the community which hassuffered their arrival and presence for seven years already.

So, surely the solution is obvious?

The Municipal Council must tell Sisk one thing if you want this community!scooperation, and if you don!t want mass objections to any new planning applications orrequests for variations: IMPLEMENT THE COMMUNITY PLAN, and do it now.