Wednesday May 16/ 2007 FINGAL INDEPENDENT

Cllr Peter Coyle (Lab) told a meeting of the Malahide/Howth Area Committee that the traditional name of Gorse Hill has ‘disappeared’ and been replaced by Holywell, the name of a huge housing estate between Swords and Kinsealy.Cllr Coyle says the estate is in Nevinstown and the traditional name for the site of the development is Gorse Hill.

THE naming of large private housing estates is wiping traditional town land names from the map according to one councillor who wants more say for the council in the naming of estates.Cllr Peter Coyle (Lab) told a meeting of the Malahide/Howth Area Committee that the traditional name of Gorse Hill has ‘disappeared’ and been replaced by Holywell, the name of a huge housing estate between Swords and Kinsealy.

Cllr Coyle says the estate is in Nevinstown and the traditional name for the site of the development is Gorse Hill.

The council’s Planning Department told Cllr Coyle that the name of Holywell was approved by the council’s Naming Committee in 2004 but Cllr Coyle recollection of events is different.

He said the committee, which has not met for a considerable period of time, stopped the developers from calling the development ‘Feltrim Hall’ and agreed that the major development in Nevinstown should be called Gorse Hill.

‘Suddenly it was called Holywell and Gorse Hill has disappeared,’ the Labour councillor said.

Cllr David Healy (GP) said the naming committee had not formally met since late 2005 and at some point it seems to have been decided that individual naming issues could be referred to a single member of the committee.

‘It doesn’t get into the corporate services calendar and get treated like any other committee. If there’s no business for it then meetings can be cancelled but meetings need to be scheduled,’ Cllr Healy said.

Cllr Coyle said the committee was important and called on the knowledge of local historians in naming new estates in the county.

The Planning Department committed to looking into the issue further and establishing why Gorse Hill did not become the name for Holywell estate.

While the investigation goes on, there is an option open to the residents of Holywell to change the name of their estate. The Planning Department said it is open to residents to apply, by plebiscite, to have the name reviewed but only after the council takes the estate in charge.

Developer blamed for Holywell delay

Wednesday September 12 /2007 Fingal Independent

The delays in completing a number of works at the troubled Holywell Estate in Swords has been blamed on the developer by a

local councillor.Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Alan Farrell (FG) who said he had an overwhelming response from residents to a letter he sent asking for information on the problems in the estate.

He said the delays that the developer had imposed on the residents in completing the estate were absolutely disgraceful.

The Mayor's comments came at a meeting of the Malahide/Howth Area Committee where Cllr Peter Coyle (Lab) asked for a progress report on getting a regular bus service into the estate.

The council's Transportation Department said that in May of 2007, Dublin Bus had informed the department that buses were

having trouble negotiating a particular roundabout in the estate.

As the estate has not been taken in charge by the local authority, the department could not act directly and instead made representations to engineers acting on behalf of the developer of the estate.

The engineers confirmed that the roundabout had been incorrectly constructed and would be rectified without delay.

Since then there has been no movement on the issue and since the roundabout in question will provide access to a future school site, the local authority is anxious to ensure that it is safe.

Until the roundabout is redesigned and reconstructed, Dublin Bus has expressed an unwillingness to operate a bus service through the estate.

Senior Executive Officer at the council's Transportation Department, Garry O'Brien told the Malahide/Howth Area Committee:

Dublin Bus is anxious to go back in to the estate but it is not safe to do so with the current layout so the developer has to respond to that.

Cllr Coyle said the bus service was just one of a number of concerns in the estate and noted that the council's Planning Enforcement Section were involved in a lot of other issues in the Swords estate

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