Upcoming Events

Kildare | Miscellaneous

no events match your query!

New Events

Kildare

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Some Laws Relating to Speech Are Surprisingly Uplifting Wed Dec 25, 2024 16:00 | James Alexander
Politics professor James Alexander has compiled a compendium of amusing laws ? Murphy's Law, Parkinson's Law and Cole's Law (thinly sliced cabbage) ? to give you a break from making polite conversation with your relatives.
The post Some Laws Relating to Speech Are Surprisingly Uplifting appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Warm Keir Starmer Just Looked Out? Wed Dec 25, 2024 11:00 | Henry Goodall
'Warm King Starmer just looked out, On the feast of Reeves, then...' Read Henry Goodall's version of 'Good King Winceslas' updated for Starmer's Britain, exclusive to the Daily Sceptic.
The post Warm Keir Starmer Just Looked Out… appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Declined: Chapter One Wed Dec 25, 2024 09:00 | M. Zermansky
Introducing Declined: a dystopian satire about the emergence of a social credit system in the U.K. that's going to be published in serial?form?in?the Daily Sceptic. Read episode one here.
The post Declined: Chapter One appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Lobbyists Behind the Climate and Nature Bill Wed Dec 25, 2024 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
The Climate and Nature Bill threatens to decimate the UK economy by turbo-charging Net Zero. But where did it come from? Charlotte Gill dives in and finds a glut of Left-wing activists working furiously behind the scenes.
The post The Lobbyists Behind the Climate and Nature Bill appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Dec 25, 2024 00:32 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Newbridge, Developers, and Broken Promises

category kildare | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Wednesday September 26, 2007 23:15author by Gosimeon - Newbridge Concerned Residents Report this post to the editors

White Water Shopping Centre is at the centre of an ongoing drama in Newbridge, County Kildare. The developer's, Ballymore Properties, have reneged on their promise to build a 6-screen cinema as part of the massive White Water Shopping Centre. Instead they have tried for over a year to change the cinema space to retail space. They have tried every trick in the book to do so. Here's an outline.
Banners at a protest
Banners at a protest

April 2006; a great day for Newbridge, County Kildare. Ballymore Propoerties are have just opened their fine new shopping centre in the centre of the town. The huge development took years to complete; causing consistent traffic mayhem and the upheaval of a local park in the process. The development was sold as a "unique mix of retail, living and leisure". The retail component was to comprise of the many stores to be located in the centre. The living element; apartments above the retail units. The "first class" cinema was to be the jewel in the crown.

But hold on. It opened but there was no cinema.

Why?

Well it all goes back to just after the Planning Application for the centre was accepted in 2002. Less than three months after the proposal was accepted, the White Water developers signalled their intent by applying for a change of use from cinema space to office/retail space. The County Council agreed with local PD politician Jane Mullin's group Newbridge Community Development as well as many other objectors, and it rejected the White Waters proposal. Simply; the centre HAD TO have a leisure and evening use as dictated by local sustainable development laws. The White Water was chasing to mullah. The Council wasn't going to stop them making more dosh. Off the went to An Board Pleaneala (ABP). ABP said no, for said reasons.

All then went quiet on the cinema front. It seemed Newbridge had won and this developer wasn't going to be allowed to throw local planning legislation into the bin to make a few more quick bucks.

Then, in 2006, just before the centre opened, another application was sent to Kildare County Council. This application tried to turn the cinema space to, you guessed it, more retail. They also claimed they were going to build a cinema (and, yes, several retail units) on another site, one that is adjoined to an bust road in an industrial area. They didn't even own the site they proposed they would build the cinema on, and most commentators agree they have no intention of ever purchasing or building anything on.

So here they are again. Trying to contravene the local planning legislation and take away the community benefit of this huge development for the sake of adding some more onto their hefty profits.

The application went to further information twice with the local authority twice, and took over a year to process! The White Water were asked over and over to explain why they need to move the cinema. The new site wasn't suitable, the Council claimed. The centre needs night time use, leisure use. The proposals contravene the Local Area Plan; the planning Bible for Newbridge. Eventually KCC refused permission.

White Water failed to answer any of these queries. They have consistently lied in their assertions. Local group "Newbridge Concerned Residents" has lead to opposition to the plans to remove the cinema. One cinema operator Patrick O'Sullivan, head of Storm Cinemas, went as far as saying that the cinema as originally proposed wasn't just viable, but he would love to run it. International Cinema expert Ron Inglis joined in by rubbishing the plans of Ballymore Propoerties.

So, the situation is as follows:

-an international corporation, with Michael Smurfit on the board, has continuously tried to contravene planning laws to make more money.

-6,300 local residents signed a petition urging the developers to stick to their promises.

-Over 1,500 partook in a protest gathering and march.

-The local cinema shut down before the centre opened, as the developers had not announced they had no intention of building the cinema they had being advertising.

-The cinema space lies vacant over a year one, with cinema operators wanting to use it. The developers are holding out for more profit. They have even gone so far as to threaten not to build the cinema if their change-of-use permission is refused by ABP.

ABP are currently considering the proposal. A cinema makes 20 euro per square foot per year
Retail makes 140 euro per square foot per year. However, if this corporation gets it's way and undermines local law, the people gain nothing.

http://www.kildare-nationalist.ie/news/story.asp?j=2530...=news

http://www.kildare.ie/community/notices/community/white...a.asp

-they have been refused twice

Related Link: http://www.newbridgeshopper.com/whitewater/whitewater_cinema.php

Local politician Pat Black holds up his phone to let local station here protestor's chants
Local politician Pat Black holds up his phone to let local station here protestor's chants

Newbridger's vent their frustration
Newbridger's vent their frustration

Crowd is addressed before march
Crowd is addressed before march

Protestors
Protestors

author by activistpublication date Sun Sep 30, 2007 22:16author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The people of Kildare have the power to
make these people listen to their objections.
If they don't get the cinema then they boycott
the retail units. See how they react to that.

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy