A commenter helpfully pointed out that there is a “mobility” plan included with the plans for the new Drogheda Stadium/Shopping center. It looks odd to say the least.
I don’t know about you but the simulation of the stadium makes it look mighty far away from anywhere, except a motorway. In other words this is a car focused development. So you’d think there would be plenty of parking, but think on again!
The stadium as designed and including the retail requires 5310 car parking spaces according to the Meath County Development Plan. However only 1809 spaces will be built (40% of need) and even better on match day, there are only 300 spaces for football fans. The rest will have to use “public transport” or take the bike. They are saying they are going to have space for 500 bike parking spaces. Other than that there will be free shuttle buses from the train and bus station.
Drivers will be expected to park in the town. The mobility plan does not suggest where a potential 2000 extra cars will park in the town or how the town itself can cope with such a large influx of traffic. If there is a capacity crowd in the stadium then 9000 people will have to get a bus, walk or cycle out to Drog land. Can you imagine doing that in the rain? I can’t
Can you imaging some bewildered Sligo Town fan arriving in our fair city after a 3 hour drive accross Ireland on a wet Monday in January and looking for the shuttle bus? I can’t
Interesting one to watch. I’ll eat my hat if it works out like they said. They are building beside the motorway interchange but not allowing car access. There is something wrong with that.
The National Roads Authority don’t like it either. This is what they had to say:
[The NRA] Objects as is concerned that the development will compromise the performance of the M1 and future national roads projects. The application as submitted indicates the current junction with the M1 will be unable to support the traffic generated by the development and will require upgrade. As this junction is subject to a PPP contract arrangement this will be complex, difficult and expensive to achieve.
Further information does not address the issues raised in its previous correspondence dated 21st September 2007. The development would compromise the M1 and future national road projects. Proposal is considered premature. The NRA therefore strongly recommends that the Planning Authority reject the current proposal.
They are basically saying they don’t really own the road so if Drogheda United fuck up the junction with traffic then it’s going to cost someone big to put in a new junction, i.e. bigger than if the road was owned by the state.
Needless to say Meath County Council blindly ignored this.
I have a couple of short messages for the charming so-called Drogs fans.
1./ I don’t give a shit one way or another about Drogheda United, I don’t like football. Not everyone does. All I did was point out a few truths about the stadium location.
2./ To those who say it is not a shopping centre, then what part of
“10 no. retail warehouse units, with a total floor area of 16285m2 a height of c14.10m (AGL); a single storey motor service station compromising 4 no sets of fuel pumps, a canopy with an area of c344m2 and a height of c6m (AGL), an ancillary retail unit with a floor area of c214m2 and a height of c4.5m (AGL), a 47.5m2 floor area.”
do you not understand in the planning application? Since when did a stadium need a petrol station?
3./ To those who say it’s not about houses then please listen to your chairman and shareholder being interviewed on the radio
Developer Bill Doyle told the Drogheda Independent that the club can’t follow Meath’s advice and apply to build the stadium without the houses.
‘We can’t build a stadium without the road and services. No one in their right minds would spend €70 million without guarantees of housing’, said Doyle.
4./ To those who say it is not far from Drogheda please look at the map below.
5./ To those who think I am dumb enough to post personalized comments about me on my own blog. Go fuck yourselves.
6./ To those who think I am intimidated by those comments ditto.
7./ To those who don’t know about climate change and peak oil, God help you…you deserve everything you get.
The second kick in the face to Drogheda was given by Meath County Council last week when councillors unanimously varied the County Development Plan to rezone agricultural land for the relocation of the Drogheda United Stadium to a site in the countryside near the M1/R152 junction.
This decision is wrong on so many front that it is worth taking time to analyse them.
1. This is not about Drogheda United
Firstly the spin has to be deconstructed. This is not about the future of Drogheda United at all. The owners of United have cynically used the football club as a front for the development of yet another shopping centre at a motorway junction. We already have two and this is a third. There is also some connection with the proposed contruction of 5000 houses in the Bryanstown area although it is not clear what that connection is.
The United element is cleverly designed as a PR strategy to ignite emotional repsonses in the public and to make it virtually impossible for any politician to criticise or question the development.
2. Bad for Drogheda
This development is being touted as great for Drogheda and great for Drogheda United. This is quite absurd. Although they have linked the survival of the club to the development, this is merely a cynical tactic. The fact is that they are taking a football club from the centre of the town to a site so far away that no one can now walk to it or use the public transport connections in Drogheda to get to it. As we noted before it takes people out of the town centre and channels them from public spaces into private shopping centres.
See the map (click)
We often hear about old lads in flat caps as being the heroes of rural Ireland and the rural pub, so what about all the residents of Drogheda who supported the club through the years and now they have to drive out to Meath to see a game or get a taxi. The cost of supporting Drogheda United has now been ramped up for residents of Drogheda.
3./ Not good for East Meath
This is absurd and doesn’t even bear analysis. Look at the map above, the stadium is as remote from East Meath as it is from Drogheda. If it were designed to benefit East Meath they would have considered actually putting it in East Meath
4./ Plenty of sites in Drogheda
There are plenty of sites within Drogheda which could have been considered. The port is soon to move and a large amount of brownfield very close to the town centre coming available. It could have been put here. There are also large sites in the region of the railway station. This would have been an ideal location.
5./ Fundamentally unsustainable
The fact is that this move is actually going to do more to jeopardise the future of Drogheda United than anything else. It is quite clear that a combination of global warming and peak oil are making car transport and commensurate car dependent developments unviable. Yet this development is entirely focussed on its location at the M1 interchange and can only be accessed by car. Has nobody noticed that there are protests all over Europe regarding fuel costs with riots and police clashes.
By using an aggressive PR campaign the developers have managed to convince councillors to rezone yet more land in the middle of nowhere contrary to all planning guidelines and policy. No doubt pressure will come to further rezone in the countryside for housing when the time comes.
6./ Really a disguised shopping/housing development.
It is a total con. It is really a shopping centre. The stadium has no relationship with Drogheda or East Meath and is located for car access from the motorway. If it was focussed on Drogheda/East Meath it would be located closer to there. The M1 focus means that is focussed on people who are not from the area.
The location also stakes a limit which will be filled in with houses. Rather than consolidate the settlements of Drogheda and East Meath there will be further car dependent sprawl of Drogheda into the green fields of Meath. This is fundamentally unsustainable.
Two news items in the Drogheda Independent highlight the hollowing out and decline of Drogheda in favour of the interests of property developers. This is the first post and a second will follow.
It looks like the town council is moving to shut down the market which has operated in the centre of Drogheda for 800 years. The site of the market is normally used as a car park during the week, but on Saturdays it becomes a market for sellers of a diverse range of wares. It is part of what makes Drogheda what it is. Importantly it draws pedestrian traffic into West Street and the centre of the town. Unfortunately for the market it draws people away from the new shopping centres while at the same time using up valuable weekend car parking spaces.
The market is public i.e. it is in a public place and allows people to interact in a public place. This is anathema to the shopping centre model which is a purely private, controlled environment in which people are manipulated to maximise spending and minimize social interactions.
One has to wonder what is really motivating the local authority in Drogheda to shut down the traditional market. One thing is certain if it goes Drogheda town centre will decline and not only in terms of the market, less people will move up towards the Western side of West Street and this area will also decline, even worse the proposed redevelopment of Narrow West Street will be jeopardised. The town council has done its best to shut down West Street with the poorly timed, poorly designed and very disruptive quasi- pedestrianisation of West Street. One wonders whether or not the closing of the market is merely the next phase of a plan which we know nothing about.
It’s really cracking me up listening to all the disgruntled politicians complaining that a lousy bunch of 800,000 people can’t allowed dictate the future of Europe. After all there are 500 million people in Europe, it’s terrible that should a small majority can get away with this. Etc. Etc.
These of course are the same people who said that Europe would be more democratic and that Ireland would have decisive influence in Europe if they voted Yes. So why should Ireland have major influence in one respect and be berated when it exercises that major influence in a way that politicians don’t like?
How many times have we heard that the veto is safe? Well we just used our veto, didn’t we? Yes we did and it didn’t go down will at all at all. The Lisbon Treaty has to ratified by unanimity, I think we heard that before.
