Members of the Save Our Seafront group (SOS) - the group that organised protests of thousands a number of years ago against plans to build apartments on the Dun Laoghaire Baths site - will campaign this weekend during the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, calling for action by the Council to restore the derelict baths as a public swimming amenity.

SOS campaigners, along with many local residents, are now very frustrated that it is five years since huge numbers of local residents marched on the Baths issue and yet, despite promises, still no action has been taken by the Council to restore the baths.

SOS will have a visible presence on Saturday and Sunday of the Festival near the baths, accompanied by a large banner saying: “Give us our baths now!” and intend to distribute thousands of leaflets to festival goers.

The SOS leaflets will also advertise a public meeting on the issue of the Baths that will take place the following week, on Wednesday July 26th at 7.30pm in the Kingston Hotel, on Dun Laoghaire’s seafront.

BIN CHARGES & PRIVATISATION, PLANNED WATER CHARGES PART OF LONG-TERM AGENDA TO PRIVATISE ALL VITAL PUBLIC SERVICES

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has said the announcement today by SIPTU that Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council workers will strike against County Manager, Owen Keegan’s, plans to discontinue the Council bin service, were entirely justified.

PBPA said the Manager’s recent announcement of his plan to discontinue the service was the culmination of a long term campaign to privatise waste collection, which began with the introduction of bin taxes ten years ago.

PBPA said that the introduction of bin charges and the commercialisation of waste collection was rigged from the start to favour the private operators and now opened the way for the privatisation of water and other vital services.

PBPA said that private operator PANDA now had a virtual monopoly of waste collection in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and that even if its charges were slightly lower currently, they would increase in years to come, as had happened everywhere else in the country.

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett has said the failure of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council and the HSE to deal with a rat infestation affecting Council tenants in Dun Laoghaire was totally unacceptable.

Tenants along a row of Council houses on Desmond Ave in Central Dun Laoghaire have been plagued with rats for several weeks but measures taken by the Council and the HSE have failed to address the problem.

Tenants who have children in their homes are particularly terrified and already very young children have encountered rats jumping out of bins in the communal lane at the back of the row of Council houses.

In desperation, some tenants have even taken to trying to kill the rats by hand using skewers forks and shovels.

Cllr Boyd Barrett has contacted the Council to tell them that the measures taken to date to deal with the infestation have not worked and that immediate action is required.

Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“This situation is totally unacceptable. Council tenants should not have to put up with these intolerable conditions. The Council, as landlord, and the HSE, as the health and safety authority, have an obligation to sort this problem out immediately.

While no-one should have to put up with this, it is particularly worrying that children are encountering these rats and their safety is being put at risk. Young children - as young as 2 years old - have been in the lane, when rats jumped out from behind bins – terrifying them. Something has to be done about this straight away.

HEARTLESS COUNCIL REFUSE TO RELENT ON MOORE FAMILY EVICTION DESPITE JUDGES’ APPEAL AND OFFER OF ALMOST €7000 PAYMENT OFF ARREARS

MEANWHILE COUNCIL SPENDS THOUSANDS TO STATION PRIVATE SECURITY IN EMPTY MOORE HOUSE BUT REFUSES TO TELL ELECTED REP COSTS

In a statement, the People Before Profit Alliance has condemned Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council’s rejection of an offer of nearly €7000 euro by the Moore family from Loughlinstown, against the rent arrears on the Council home from which they were recently evicted. The Council refused the offer, despite an appeal for “common sense” from a district court Judge, hearing a civil application by the Moore’s to have the eviction set-aside in Dun Laoghaire district court last Friday.

Friends and supporters of the Moore family raised the money over recent weeks in effort to defray the rent arrears of €13,000 that had built up on the tenancy and that led the Council to evict the family in May.The offer from the Moore family was made public during the hearing in Dun Laoghaire district court last Thursday and Friday.

The District court Judge, presiding, had appealed to the Council to come to some sort of arrangement with the family, given the offer of such a lump sum payment and the efforts by the family to pay the arrears in instalment over the last eight months. However, the Council rejected the offer and the judges’ appeals, leaving the judge no option legally but to rule that the eviction was lawful.

VICTORY AT BORD PLEANLA IN BATTLE AGAINST TEK MOBILE PHONE MAST

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance has welcomed the decision of An Bord Pleanala to refuse the appeal of mobile phone company Meteor for retention planning permission for a mobile phone mast it erected in the grounds of TEK FC in Stradbrook.

The decision was confirmed in letters from Bord Pleanala, received today, by Cllr Boyd Barrett and other local residents, who had objected.

Bord Pleanala rejected the appeal of Meteor on the grounds that the mast was visually obtrusive and damaging to the residential amenity of the area, particularly to St Fintan’s Park, Villas and Deansgrange Rd , which backed onto the site where the mast was erected.

Cllr Boyd Barrett was involved in organising a local campaign of residents in nearby areas to have the mast taken down and was the only elected local representative to formally lodge an objection to both the Council and An Bord Pleanala.

Cllr Boyd Barrett welcomed the decision, saying:“This decision is a real victory for local residents and people power against the arrogance of Meteor.

Meteor deliberately and cynically put up the 18 metre mast in the middle of a residential area without planning permission or public consultation, in a flagrant abuse of the planning system.

They and other mobile phone companies are doing this all the time and their attitude seems to be to lash as many of these things up as possible in the hope that a few get through unnoticed. It’s a disgrace.

It is only because local residents were alert and that together we organised an active campaign of protests and objections that Meteor’s cynical plans were scuppered.

PBPA CALLS FOR PUBLIC BOYCOTT OF CONNOLLY SHOES IN BRAY AND ELSEWHERE

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has condemned the decision of Connolly Shoes to close their Dun Laoghaire stores in the midst of a long running dispute, which has seen four of their longest serving employees on strike for more than eleven weeks.

A demonstration will take place at 1pm today (Mon 17th) outside Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council in protest against the eviction of Anne and Christopher Moore and their three children from their Loughlinstown Council home on Friday.

The Moore family were evited by Gardai and Council officials for rent arrears, even though the family had offered an installment arrangment to pay-off the arrears last October and had kept to the arrangment solidly for eight months.

Anne Moore resisted her eviction on Friday by climbing to the top of a ladder leant against the front of the house. Her brave protest resulted in a seven hour stand-off with Gardai. During the protest, huge numbers of neighbours and Loughlinstown residents came out onto the street and pleaded with the Gardai and Council officials not to proceed with the evicvtion.

In a sinister move the Gardai requested a black-out of any live media coverage of the eviction protest, even though large numbers of media correspondents were present. A large number of riot polce were also brought to the scene of the eviction and gardai imposed a crime scene cordon around the entire estate, restricting access of neighbours and members of the public to the eviction scene.

Although evicted the Council have provided no alternative accomodation for the Moore family, who are now scattered staying with different friends and family members.

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance condemned the decision of the Labour/ Fine Gael majority in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council to vote against a motion calling for the re-opening of the recently closed Sallynoggin library as a full-time library with trained librarians.