Residents outraged over plan for Bulloch Harbour

A BULLOCH Harbour resident said that her life will be “devastated” if development plans go ahead.
Monica Smyth (80) has been living at Bulloch Harbour in Dalkey since 1958. Her family have lived at the harbour since 1915. She lives in the iconic blue cottage at the end of the harbour.
“I am not against development in the area altogether – I am against the residential development proposed due to the flooding.”
Almost 500 people turned up to voice their outrage at the Bulloch Harbour development plans at a public meeting last Thursday.
Developers, Bartra Property Ltd, have applied for planning permission to build a mixed-use marine commercial, leisure, community and residential development.
The major renovation would completely transform the area, if approved. However, local residents say that the plans would destroy the existing “beautiful and precious” harbour.
Bartra Property Ltd is a company owned by property developer Richard Barrett, formerly of Treasury Holdings.
The meeting was organised by the Bulloch Harbour Preservation Association, who say that the plans would “destroy one of the last small working harbours on the coast around Dublin and seriously curtail its use as a public amenity”.
Monica says she is the “thorn in the side” of the developers and has warned them that there is no technology that would prevent future homes there from being flooded constantly.
Susan Mc Donnell, chairperson of the association’s Planning Committee, said that the proposed development would “deprive the community of public amenities which they have enjoyed for centuries, block public views and access to the rocks and the sea, provide no service access for the proposed commercial units, and no parking for these or their clients”.
She added: “There are a range of serious safety concerns, including serious flooding to the proposed houses and the existing iconic blue cottage.”
At the meeting, one after another, people spoke of the history, the heritage, the culture, their memories of swimming, fishing, diving, playing in the harbour and their fears for the future if this kind of construction was allowed by the planners.
They spoke of the harbour as a public amenity and how this proposal would impact severely on public usage in the future.
Representatives of the kayakers, the divers, the anglers, sea scouts, the fishermen, walkers, local residents and users of the harbour from all across the city strongly rejected the proposed development, which they saw as exploitation for profit by Bartra Capital Ltd.
However, a representative from Bartra, Grainne Hollywood, director of construction and development, told The Gazette: “Bartra have retained a design team of the highest quality and experience to provide a scheme of development which, after much consultation with various parties is, we believe, both respectful and enhancing of the harbour and the local environment.”
Rejecting this, Monica Smyth told The Gazette that she believes the plans would “destroy the whole ambience of the place – Bulloch Harbour wouldn’t be a nice place to visit any more”.