Frank Clarke, chair of the Oliver Bond Regeneration Forum, confirmed that the meeting would be proceeding in the middle of next week \u201cwith details still to be worked out\u201d.<\/p>\n
The forum has been heavily involved in developing the now-scrapped plans to regenerate the dilapidated complex, which has extensive damp, mould and antisocial behaviour issues.<\/p>\n
Residents, councillors, council officials, local garda\u00ed and the HSE all sit on the forum, which has requested a meeting with Mr Browne several times to no avail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get [Mr Browne] out for a long time to discuss this,\u201d said Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty. “We do now have confirmation that a meeting will take place next Wednesday. How that will work I don\u2019t fully know.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I think it\u2019s important that he actually steps foot in Oliver Bonds and sees the reality of what it\u2019s like for residents to live in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He cautiously welcomed the meeting, but said he hoped the meeting was more than a \u201cphoto op\u201d.<\/p>\n
“I hope it\u2019s a positive sign, I hope he\u2019s not coming out just to restate the same position he\u2019s already stated. I hope he\u2019s there to listen, to consider, and that hopefully there\u2019s some sort of U-turn or climb down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does need to be depoliticised. It needs to be looked at from the point of view of the families and residents of a very dilapidated and dated complex. What can we do to get those homes rejuvenated as quickly as possible?\u201d<\/p>\n
It emerged yesterday that the regeneration plans for Oliver Bond flats complex had been scrapped, with Government saying the proposals \u201cdo not represent value for money\u201d.<\/p>\n
The complex\u2019s long-mooted regeneration promised to address its dire living conditions, with a planning application due to be submitted in October this year by Dublin City Council (DCC).<\/p>\n
Works were to start on the Herbert Simms-designed building, originally built in 1936, in two years.<\/p>\n
Those proposals would have amalgamated smaller flats to form larger units, which meant an overall reduction in apartments from 74 to 46 for the three blocks proposed.<\/p>\n
The Department of Housing said it could not support such a reduction \u201cduring a housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
It requested that DCC update the plans to provide for a deep retrofit of the existing flats and houses, \u201cwhile ensuring that there is not a significant reduction in homes\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the same time, it said flats should be redesigned to reduce the number of bed spaces, noting that some units \u201cfall short of the minimum apartment floor areas\u201d for current usages.<\/p>\n
“The department recommends that flats be reconfigured for the appropriate bed spaces for the existing floor areas; e.g. convert small two-bedroom flats to standard size one-bedroom homes for couples.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added that the council\u2019s plans to demolish three of the 14 blocks and build new homes on Bridgefoot Street provides an opportunity to house families displaced by the reduction in bed spaces.<\/p>\n
However, the scrapping of the regeneration has been widely condemned by opposition parties and residents, with Mr Moriarty saying yesterday that it was a \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201ctone deaf\u201d move.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the government to pull the rug from under the Oliver Bond Regeneration when we are a few short months away from planning being lodged is gut-wrenching,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taoiseach himself has visited Oliver Bond and heard directly from residents on the realities they and their families face every day in terms of damp, mould and cramped and overcrowded conditions,\u201d said Mr Moriarty.<\/p>\n
“To attempt to justify the Government\u2019s refusal to progress this vitally needed regeneration project by saying it can\u2019t support the loss of units in a housing crisis is galling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gayle Cullen-Doyle, a resident of the complex , who also sat on the forum, said residents were absolutely gutted by news of the regeneration being scrapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like someone is after dying in the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Cullen-Doyle said Housing Minister James Browne is out of touch and doesn\u2019t understand the reality of life for residents.<\/p>\n
“My message [to Mr Browne] is to come down and visit us. Come down and see our conditions. He\u2019s made zero contact since he came into that role.<\/p>\n
“In fairness to [previous housing minister] Darragh O\u2019Brien, he visited the flats, and he promised us: \u2018The money is there, it\u2019s just about how we\u2019re going to do this.\u2019<\/p>\n
“You think he\u2019d be passing that information onto the next minister, to continue that work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s suggestion to reduce the number of bed spaces per unit also wouldn\u2019t work, she added.<\/p>\n
“And what? Throw all the families out? Then you\u2019ve no community and if you think what\u2019s going on now is bad, that would be worse. It would be like the Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank Clarke, chair of the Oliver Bond Regeneration Forum, confirmed that the meeting would be proceeding in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-437451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}