- Sustainable living means that a detailed employment/job plan is needed for the areas of housing expansion in County Wicklow. As a resident in Delgany, this is particularly noticeable in the Greystones/Delgany area over the last two to three years - within a radius of two kilometres of Delgany village there has been a huge increase in urbanisation from what was a semi-rural area. As a result, we have significant and ever-increasing infrastructural deficits in Delgany/Greystones in relation to key services such as education, health, public transport and road infrastructure. Given permission for housing and residential units alone does not constitute planning, a holistic approach is urgently needed in this area. In excess of 100 sixth class children in this area earlier in 2021 had no secondary school to go in September 2021, and the solution for some of these students is a new prefab school on the GAA grounds in Greystones, which started construction in early July. This new school is located beside the prefab primary school on the Rugby sports grounds (which after five years is finally moving to its new school premises this September). Given that the highest cohort of the population in the 2016 Census was our 0-9 years, the problem that has emerged with respect to school places in both primary and secondary schools was already in the pipeline from the 2016 population numbers which means that this crisis could have been averted if planned for in advance. The huge increase in population since 2016 is clearly adding to this problem. A number of potential buyers of new houses, who have small children, are now choosing to buy new homes elsewhere in places such as Malahide because they can’t get places for their children in the local primary schools. Planning in Wicklow, and elsewhere, urgently needs to be joined-up and integrated and the draft County Development Plan would benefit hugely from evidence of joint plans with the Departments of Education, Health. Transport, Environment, Climate and Communication and Housing. Local Government and Heritage. There also needs to be stronger contacts established with Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to plan for and attract more sustainable highly paid employment in this area. The CDP would benefit from more up-to-date information and data in relation to the population forecasts and projections as these are critical to enable all stakeholders, including local residents, to understand the future planning needs in this area (the widespread use of the 2016 Census data in the draft CDP does not accurately reflect the current population in Greystones and Delgany). While it can be difficult to get up-to-date data, the use of forecasting and econometric methods and tools would help to ensure that the most accurate projections are made so that all services, amenities and infrastructure (i.e. transport, utilities, etc) can be planned for in advance and brought on stream in a timely manner. At the moment all services and infrastructure in this area are overstretched and overloaded.
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The CDP would benefit from the inclusion of tables along the following lines:
Population
Census 2016
Current estimates 2021
2025 Projections
2030
Forecasts
Additional Housing needed/targets already achieved:
A. Delgany
B. Greystones
C. Kilcoole[CH1]
Total A+B+C
Impact of population changes on:
Health
- Public health centres
Education
-primary
-secondary
Transport
- Public transport improvements
- Road infrastructure
Utilities
- Water
- Sewerage
- ESB
- Broadband
Community
Amenities
- Playgrounds
- Open Public Parks
Delgany
Greystones
Kilcoole
Additional tables, like the above, would help community stakeholders and residents to see the plans, based on population forecasts, for infrastructure, services and other community amenities that are needed in the local area when housing expands.
- There is a need for high value-added jobs (i.e. highly paid employment) in the Delgany/Greystones area. The majority of existing and new residents in Greystones/Delgany will most likely need to commute to Dublin for their work when offices open again in late 2021/early 2022 (using the 2016 Census data means that the number of commuters and their commuting times are significantly underestimated). Increasing the number of cycle and pedestrian path will only be really useful if residents can choose to work locally, which is currently not the case as shown by the low jobs ratio in this area. Wicklow, as a county, needs a detailed strategy and plan to attract high value-added employment companies which will give residents good options in terms of local employment opportunities (e.g. ICT/financial services office/data hubs in Bray and Greystones). A number of financial companies are also looking to find satellite offices outside Dublin and there’s a significant opportunity for Wicklow County Council to be pro-active in setting out a strategy and plan to attract these type of companies to set up in the county. To make the area attractive to these type of industries and companies, there is need for a satellite third level hub/centre of excellence, most likely from one of the major universities in Dublin such as UCD, Trinity or DCU. By locating in the county, these satellite centres could act as an anchor and a collaborator with the new companies/industry partners. This would also help to encourage further clustering of these high value-added (highly paid) industries and service companies. Clermont in Rathnew will not be sufficient. While the Media/Film site in Greystones is very welcome, this sector is not known to provide secure and highly paid employment.