What’s the Plan? Greystones, Delgany & Kilcoole LAPs

Posted on by

Earlier this week, I met with planners from Wicklow County Council about the local Area plans for Greystones, Delgany and Kilcoole. The planning team were at pains to point out that they’re finding it difficult to get any meaningful engagement with the community. On the back of this meeting I alerted them to a range of issues that I felt should be considered when drawing up the local area plan, and in the coming weeks I’ll be liaising with as many people, groups and bodies to flesh out these ideas.

I gave them my thoughts – and I’d also like to give them yours. So if you have a viewpoint on anything below or some new ideas, please get in touch and I’ll make sure your thoughts, ideas, and initiatives are put in front of the planning team.

1. Public Open Spaces and Parks

All three locations enjoy some high quality open spaces. Greystones and Kilcoole have the beaches and Delgany has several forests with walking trails. However, there is a noticeable absence of any parkland, other than the relatively small People’s Park by the Greystones DART station.
I note the plan to create public parkland as part of the Greystones Harbour development. However, the total size of this is set to be just 15 acres, with 3 acres having been gifted back by Wicklow County Council to the developer to make the development more financially attractive to the developer (the plan being for the developer to build an apartment block on the land which was meant to be public parkland). The remaining 15 acres is about 250 meters squared, which is insufficient for a planned population of approximately 24,000. It is also unclear when this parkland will be built, and how much more of it may be gifted to the developer to build more apartments or commercial units on.

A large public park, along the lines of the one in Cabinteely, would be of enormous benefit for the people in, and visitors to, Greystones, Delgany and Kilcoole. With the growing population, this facility would be particularly suitable for the area, with a growing number of children and teenagers.

Any future public parkland should ideally be within walking distance of one of the population centres. As such, the following areas could be considered:

  • The current greenbelt between Greystones and Kilcoole (particularly from Knockroe to the sea)The remainder of the IDA site in Charlesland (though this would obviously need to be balanced against the potential value of this site for further job creation)
  • The remaining Public Open Spaces around the Shoreline Leisure Centre
  • The land south of the new Charlesland development, current zoned as E2
  • The land to the middle south of the Greystones – Delgany LAP map currently zoned for Agriculture.
  • A new public park integrated into other public amenities would be particularly valuable for the residents of the three centres and for the promotion of tourism (for example, a family-friendly walking and cycling route which joined the park with the beech, the DART and the three population centres)

2. Playgrounds

As per the lack of public parkland, the lack of high quality playgrounds is very evident for the Greystones – Delgany – Kilcoole area. The existing facilities in Greystones, Delgany and Kilcoole are very small. Again with the young population in the area and the planned growth in population, multiple, large, high quality playgrounds would be of enormous public value.

Research I have recently commissioned from the Oireachtas Library & Research Service shows that the number of playgrounds in Wicklow per 1,000 population is 0.15. This is the fifth lowest of the 16 comparative counties with which Wicklow was grouped. There is great room and opportunity for improvement here.

3. Walking & Cycling

The Council is to be congratulated for its progress in this area over the past few years, with an increase in cycling routes and a very successful bike parking facility at Greystones DART station.

Similarly, we are seeing the local area, and Wicklow generally, grow as a cycle destination for residents and tourists. The recent document ‘Planning for Cycling in Greystones’ is very welcome. Further development in this area would be very beneficial, and might include some of the following:

  • Increase in bike parking facilities at the DART station and in other locations which fall within the LAP boundaries (e.g., Kilcoole train station, forest car parks, main streets)
  • Cycle and walking/running path linking Kilcoole, Greystones and Delgany with is physically separated from the road
  • The ‘Planning for Cycling in Greystones’ document provides for physical separation of cycle routes and roads in certain instances. Accepting some physical constraints are very difficult to overcome, pushing for physical separation wherever possible is critical, particularly for younger cyclists
  • An example of where this could be improved on the current proposal is map 2 of 7, where Kindlestown Road meets Rathdown Road – cross section C-C could avoid the parking bay and provide for physical separation of the cycle path, with this separation continued as far up Bray Head as possible, ideally maintained the full way to Bray
  • Cycle path linking the three population centres to the N11, both from Bray Head (and Southern Cross) and from the new access road built as part of the Charlesland development
  • Cycle and walking/running path along the beach, ideally linking from the Southern end of the Cliff Walk to Kilcoole, and potentially south to Newcastle
  • Implementation of infrastructural aspects of school travel plans (e.g., parking restrictions at the entrances to the schools, secure walking routes from drop-off points to school entrances, pedestrian lights for major routes taken by students, secure bike parking for students) and the same implementation for workplace travel planning (e.g., significant bike parking facilities at clusters of places of work)

4. Built Environment

A set of guidelines for all works in the town / village centres would be very useful, both for accessibility and to improve the aesthetics of the areas. This would include:

  • Types of stone and other materials used for paving, curbs, etc.;
  • Signage – both public and shop-front
  • Accessibility criteria (gradients, etc.)
  • Colour schemes and minimum requirements
  • Lighting

Other issues which could be considered include:

  • Prioritisation of pedestrians & cyclists. This could include Pedestrianisation of certain routes, as implemented with great success in towns like Westport
  • Changing of some car parking space to bike parking
  • Opening up of certain routes (including lighting) for pedestrians
  • Accessibility for mobility impaired, parents with buggies, etc.
  • Speed bumps – currently too many in some areas and not enough in others, with many different types (including new ones on Bellvue Road in Greystones which are damaging cars, causing back injuries, causing erratic driving and diverting traffic to less safe routes such as Church Lane)

5. Tourism & Job Creation

Currently there is no integrated plan for tourism and job creation for Greystones, Delgany or Kilcoole. Work led by the Chamber of Commerce over the past few months, including public consultation, strongly supports the call to develop the three population centres as a hub for tourism.

The Chamber and others are working on a variety of initiatives to this end (e.g., raising the profile of Wicklow and the Greystones – Delgany – Kilcoole area with Fáilte Ireland, creating an asset inventory, liaising with tour operators). The new LAP could work in tandem with these initiatives, with the following as examples:

  • High quality commercial and domestic broadband (possibly free in public spaces)
  • Zoning for arts-related activities (e.g., theatre, cinema, dance, art studios);
  • Tour bus parking in the three centres
  • Promotion of water sports for Greystones and Kilcoole and rambling & off-road biking for Delgany
  • Integrated parking ticketing (e.g., single parking ticket for the three areas – the current situation, where even parking on the other side of the street, or further up or down a particular street is getting people tickets is economically harmful to residents and local businesses)
  • Larger parking area for Greystones South Beach

6. Sustainability Projects

There is great scope for the new LAP to provide a framework that will provide for a more sustainable and resilient community. While many may not fall within consideration for a LAP, examples include:

  • Community allotments
  • Incentives for electric cars (e.g., free parking, as used in London);
  • Water schemes (e.g., rainwater harvesting)
  • Green energy projects (e.g., wind farms)
  • Community harvest groups
  • Geothermal energy
  • Zoning and/or incentives for carbon neutral or passive buildings

7. Non-commercial Sports & Community Facilities

There are a host of facilities and clubs in the area that provide excellent value for young families and parents. However, as with the playgrounds (above) there is a lack of community halls and free public facilities. Previously this function was fulfilled by the likes of the old “Killian’s Hall” in Greystones, which was available to host a range of activities, events, societies and clubs. Without any such social hub, the community is entirely reliant on privately owned and run enterprises to host the smallest clubs and the bigger community events.

As discussed, the Chamber of Commerce, Tidy Towns, myself and local representatives are in the middle of a strategic development process, focusing primarily on enterprise development. I look forward to sharing this work with all County Council officials and envisage there being considerably more detail to input to the planning process in the coming months.

8. LAP Content & Process

It would be very useful to have an operational aspect to the new LAP. The previous Greystones LAP did not contain targets, proposed deliverables, timelines or budgets such that the realistic intent could be evaluated or progress tracked. Inclusion of these in the new LAP, including prioritisation of projects, potential sources of funding, indicative budgets & funding required, milestones, etc., along with an agreed tracking and reporting process, would be a major step forward.

9. Potential Combination of the Greystones & Delgany with the Kilcoole Local Area Plan

I support this proposal as allowing for the greatest benefit and strategic planning for Kilcoole, Delgany and Greystones. The green belt between Kilcoole and Greystones is obviously of huge strategic importance and it would not seem sensible to plan for both areas in isolation.

The issue of separate identities for the areas needs to be respected. However, incorporating Delgany and Greystones in the same LAP does not appear to have had a detrimental effect on the culture of either location.

The merging of the two plans presents a great opportunity for Kilcoole, with regard to increasing tourism, other economic activity in the town, and for all three population centres with regard to creating high quality walking and cycling routes and other infrastructural connectivity and community resources.
In short, I believe this approach will allow us to grow together, as three communities under the auspices of one plan.

  • mary marmion osullivan

    Stephen a few points:
    If Council wants Kilcoole considered under  the Delgany Greystones Area Plan shouldnt Kilcoole be awarded rents review i.e. for those struggling to meet rents under new allownance.
    There are several groups in Kilcoole struggling, for many years, to secure land in Kilcoole for playground/ amenity  development.  So many obstacles and yet the community is persisting. We know about funding…land is the probloem. Womens Group in Kilcoole is contact to lobby for this.  0877701052. Help!

  • The planners find it difficult to get engagement with the public because they only seek it after they have first drafted their beloved schemes. And when the public do engage, their point of view is then ignored and the planners, officials, and councillors just go ahead and do what they want anyhow. The crisis we now face in Greystones is the biggest and most disastrous example of where this approach leads.

    This is not Co Mayo, where the local authority takes responsibility for fostering good relations with the community on planning matters and nurtures those relations, firstly by listening to what the public has to say (in advance) and secondly by incorporating public suggestions into the LAPs, etc. And where an institutional structure of continuing consultation has been set up which allows public input into the early stages — not just the minimal right to voice objections (ignored) and observations after the fact.