Plans for an ambitious redevelopment of Greystones harbour, Co Wicklow, will be put on public display by Wicklow County Council next month.
The plans include provision for a new harbour basin containing a marina with up to 290 berths, a new commercial and residential waterfront, facilities for existing sailing and angling clubs, a new sandy beach, a six-acre park and four new slipways.
Also envisaged are a single-storey restaurant/small hotel, a boat-yard with ancillary commercial marine services, space and facilities for the existing commercial fishing fleet and boat-yards for the sailing, angling, coastal rescue and rowing clubs.
The development is also designed to protect the rapidly deteriorating coastline south of Bray Head where the soft clay is falling into the sea at a rate which has tripled since the early 1970s.
The area in the vicinity of the southern approaches to the cliff walk between Greystones and Bray is now falling into the sea by as much as three metres a year, the council claims. It is now at the point where concern has been expressed over the proximity of the newly electrified commuter rail to Greystones.
A residential element which the council says is necessary to finance the scheme includes 250 apartments beside the railway track. These will be in three-storey, over-parking and two-storey, over-parking and designed so as not to overlook houses on the other side of the tracks. It is also proposed to construct 16 small commercial units to serve the residential element and generate additional finance.
In engineering terms the project is one of the biggest ever envisaged by Wicklow County Council and has the potential to develop along the lines of Malahide marina and village in north Co Dublin.
While the figure of £20 million (#25.4) has been mentioned as the cost of reinstating the old harbour and protecting the coastline while developing the new marina, the final cost of the project is difficult to estimate until construction costs involved with the residential and commercial elements are added to the value of the land.
Greystones harbour has actually been deteriorating since shortly after it was built over 100 years ago in 1888 at a cost of about £20,000. In the 1960s a base for the Kish lighthouse, which was being towed into position, came adrift and was damaged in rough weather. It was decided to tow the base to Greystones where it was connected to the existing pier by a rock armoury.
Since then, however, the pier has continued to deteriorate, while the Kish base has been blamed locally for the silting up of the harbour and old dock area.
Running repairs have been carried out over the intervening decades but the future of the pier without substantial work is in grave doubt. A similar situation affects the harbour's north wall.
In order to preserve the existing old dock and pier, the new plan proposes a rock armoury on the seaward side of the pier with a new extension, also covered by a rock armoury to the north/north-west. This new extension would guard a new harbour mouth while a new pier would run roughly parallel with the north beach to a point where it would meet with a new sandy beach. There would also be walkways and public access on the external piers.
The harbour mouth has been designed in the shape of an Sbend to minimise silting and wave impact inside the harbour. The piers are raised to cope with the expected rise in sea levels due to global warming. The marina entrance would form a secondary enclave within the harbour.
Creating an imaginative scheme which improves public access as well as the facilities for harbour users while dealing with the conservation needs of the old harbour and the demands of coastal erosion has not been easy, according to the council.
A "think tank" has been operating in the area for some time and in one of the most detailed public consultations ever undertaken by the council views of a diverse section of the local community have been gleaned. According to Mr Derek Mitchell, a Fine Gael member of Wicklow County Council and chairman of the Greystones Harbour Liaison Group, progress on the harbour has been slow but very welcome.
"This is one of the most adventurous projects being implemented by any council and it is complex from an engineering as well as financial aspect," he said.
Mr Mitchell said there was now a need to speed up progress on the project.
Wicklow County Council has said it intends to make a compulsory purchase order in respect of land in the area action plan.
The council also says considerable progress will be made this year with the making of the compulsory order and the completion of a hydraulic survey as well as the preparation of an environmental impact statement.
Outline plans for the project will be on display in the Greystones Town Commission Offices, South Beach, on Tuesday, June 12th, from noon to 10 p.m.
Illustrated presentations will be held at noon, 3 p.m., 7.30 p.m. and 9 p.m., followed by question-and-answer sessions.
