GUBOH Media release 10 September 2014 Appalling insult to people of Greystones as Sisk spits in Council’s eye The refusal of the Greystones harbour developer, Sisk, to attend the special meeting of the Municipal Council on 9 September is an appalling insult to the people of Greystones, according to GUBOH. Both Sisk and the project director at county buildings, Sean Quirke, had sent letters to the administrator of the Municipal Council refusing to attend the meeting on the grounds that there would be a ”third parties” present. As the intent of the Council was to have an open discussion of the harbour project and the Community Plan between all parties — all local TDs and councillors, the Community Plan sponsors, and the PPP partners Sisk and WCC — Sisk’s refusal to attend marks yet another escalation in years of insult to and contempt for the community in Greystones. “It is really difficult, in the light of this contemptuous behaviour, to find words to describe Sisk’s attitude to Greystones,” said GUBOH spokesman Basil Miller. “It is perfectly clear that Sisk’s only concern is to extract as much profit from the harbour project as possible, and they feel entitled to snub the councillors, the constituency TDs, the consultants who have made their expertise available at no charge, and every single resident of Greystones and the wider area in pursuit of that. “Worse still, they have been aided and abetted in their arrogance by Wicklow County Council. Instead of refusing to attend this meeting, project director Sean Quirke should have instructed Sisk to be there and should also have made himself available. “It would appear that the executive of Wicklow County Council has no interest in finding a solution to the harbour problem which would satisfy the people of Greystones. Instead of using their powers under the contract to compel Sisk to engage with the community and its representatives to find a solution, county officials have allowed Sisk to drag their feet for four years now and have utterly refused to invoke contractual powers to ensure they finish the development.” GUBOH, however, is encouraged by the fact that a serious and thorough debate took place among those who did attend the meeting, including all the local councillors, Stephen Donnelly TD, and John FFF O’Brien who explained the costings of the Community Plan prepared by his company and went through the detail of the plan for the meeting. “The net result of the discussion, according to our reports, was that most if not all councillors now accept that the Community Plan can be implemented at low cost and in such a way as to mesh seamlessly with whatever construction schedule and phasing may emerge from Sisk’s current negotiations with possible construction partners,” said Miller. “I find that very encouraging. But it makes it even more outrageous that the arrogance of both partners in the project, Sisk and WCC, led them to refuse to participate in a meeting which could, if their attitude was different, have reached a solution to the problems we face with the harbour.”
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:14:28 +0000
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