FOLLOWING the dispute about a marina development, the Co Kerry port of Dingle is now at the centre of another planning controversy over proposals to build a £5 million holiday apartment and retail complex on the site of a derelict former state-run boatyard in the fishery harbour.
The Dingle Quay Residents' Group is opposing the project, while local interest groups, including the harbour board and the Dingle Fishermen's Association, have expressed concerns over loss of a boatyard and restricted access to the waterfront.
The controversy, which is almost as heated as the marina row of six years ago, is said by the objectors to have been exacerbated by the Department of the Marine. The lease on the boatyard, formerly run by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), had been held by the State, but in 1979 the yard was transferred to Mr Joe O'Boyle, who sold the beneficial interest to a developer in 1993, with the Department's approval.
Mr Roy Coogan, developer and managing director of Dingle Harbour Development Co, then put in a planning application for a hotel. This was turned down by An Bord Pleanala in 1994 on the grounds that it contravened the Dingle statutory development plan and would create parking difficulties. Although the boatyard is a skeletal ruin, the fishing port is one of the State's six main harbours, holding a fleet of some 80 vessels.
In spite of this rejection, Kerry County Council has commissioned a study which favours a tourism component as part of an overall redevelopment of the harbour. The study, which was carried out by Dr Brian Meehan, a planning consultant, evaluates existing and potential land uses.
It proposes an integrated development with a scaled-down "tourism block" and residential element, provision of enclosed amenity space, a theme bar", restaurant and retail outlets. It suggests an alternative location for a boatyard within the harbour area and relocation of the existing ice plant to the outer end of the main pier.
Mr Sean Brosnan, of the Dingle Quay Residents' Group, claims that the Meehan plan was drawn up without adequate local consultation. Dingle people were united in opposition to it, he said, because of the potential disruption to the fishing industry in one of the State's six major fishery harbour centres.
The existing boatyard and slipway would never reopen and the tourism complex would create a "wall" between the town of Dingle and the harbour, thus obliterating one of its major tourist assets, the sea view.
Serious traffic congestion would also be created on the road network, according to Mr Brosnan. Given that the rest of the town - so dependent on its infamous dolphin - had been "practically given over to tourism", it was not unreasonable to designate the eastern harbour area for the fishing industry in the interests of "equilibrium". These concerns had been upheld by An Bord Pleanla in its decision of June, 1994, he added.
Mr John O'Connor, finance officer with Kerry County Council, confirmed that the Meehan plan had been commissioned as part of an objective strategy for land use in the harbour. There were three main reasons for this, he told The Irish Times: the obtrusive impact of the derelict boatyard, the lack of development on an adjoining relief road and the bottleneck created by the current location of the ice plant and associated sheds.
Mr O'Connor said that local interests and related development agencies, including BIM and "Udaras na Gaeltachta, had been consulted. The draft document had been circulated to residents last July, he said, and a submission had been made in response. In October, the consultants met residents directly, so there had been "plenty of opportunities for an input".
Any hotel/tourism development would not exclude the fishing industry, according to Mr O'Connor. "It is a package of measures", he said.
Mr Coogan is now prepared to revise his planning application to construct a £5 million retail and holiday apartment complex which would step back some 30 metres from the original site. In exchange, he is seeking equivalent acreage to the eastern end of the yard.
"If we move back from the harbour area, we remove the principal objection, which is the severing of the waterfront from - lithe town", he told The Irish Times. There would be "no "objection" on his part if the Minister and harbour commissioners decided subsequently to provide a new boatyard in front of the proposed development.
The harbour commissioners favour reinstatement of a boatyard, but fear that the residents' objections may result in total loss of such a facility.
Adding its voice to the debate, Dingle Chamber of Commerce has told Kerry County Council that it opposes hotel or hostel accommodation and the "associated ancillaries" proposed by the Meehan plan since this would be "incompatible" with the principal economic activity, fishing. The development would "greatly diminish" the very important physical link between the fishing industry and the town, the chamber said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Marine said that it had been "negotiating to try to resolve the matter".
