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Post by The Raven on Oct 22, 2010 12:09:20 GMT
The large area of woodland that is the green open space of Castletown housing estate is to be transferred to the OPW by Kildare County Council on a 99-year lease, and fenced off against the wishes of local residents. Some of this area is the beautiful landscape in front of a number of Castletown houses and some of it is behind another row of houses. All meetings have been held behind closed doors. The residents are very angry and distressed. www.kildare.ie/community/CatherineMurphy/2010/10/castletown_land_transfer_and_f.html#more More on this later as I have to go out.
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Post by joepublic on Oct 22, 2010 14:20:05 GMT
If it helps to clean up the rubbish in the woods then I would not be entirely against it. I go walking in the woods now and then but can't enjoy it because of the amount of dumped rubbish and beer cans and bottles etc. Then you have the scrambler motor bikes roaring past and doing circles of the field behind Castletown House and the noise out of them is annoying. If the residents of Castletown estate really loved the woods I'd expect a lot more voluntary effort to try and keep them litter free. It a bit like the story of the gazebo where youths hung out there and slowly wrecked it and only when someone knocked it down was there a major outcry.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 22, 2010 20:44:22 GMT
If it helps to clean up the rubbish in the woods then I would not be entirely against it. I go walking in the woods now and then but can't enjoy it because of the amount of dumped rubbish and beer cans and bottles etc. Joe, a lot of people, like your good self, go for walks in the woods. They come from everywhere, both from Castletown estate and outside. The area of the woods in question is the part adjoining Castletown housing estate, which is the designated green open space of the residents of the estate. The residents have indeed in the past done clean-outs but, as a member of the Tidy Towns Committee, I am sure you are aware of the difficulties involved with serial litter-louts who continue to thwart your efforts. I absolutely agree. However, I believe that this field belongs to Janus Securities, and I fail to see how we could stop it. You could try contacting them if it is bothering you. Are you talking about the whole expanse of Castletown woods, or just the designated green open space of the housing estate? It would indeed help if there were more voluntary efforts, not just on the part of Castletown residents, but everyone who uses the woods. Ah here now! Who wrote this particular version of events ? The Gazebo was 'wrecked' by the developer who bought it! He sent in a JCB at 6 o'clock one Saturday morning and knocked most of it down, only stopping when the gardai arrived. We have photos to prove it. Of course there was a major outcry. Are we not entitled to be shocked at this disgraceful event? You seem to think that Castletown residents didn't care about the Gazebo. That is untrue! They were very proud of it as the centrepiece of the estate. Nobody expected that a white-collar vandal would come into the estate and demolish it ! Before that it was used as a local shop, and youths do tend to hang around such places. They did cause anti-social problems at the Gazebo, and nearby residents did all they could to stop it.
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Post by joepublic on Oct 23, 2010 1:05:00 GMT
KCC are not going to maintain the woods or do anything to solve the unsocial behaviour and the residents are not in a position to either. The OPW are providing a possible solution for which we don't have the full details of yet.
My gazebo comparison probably wasn't clear. I see in the woods where fires have scorched and damaged some of the trees and maybe if conditions were favourable the whole place could go up in smoke and then there would be a major outcry. Rather than wait for such an event it seems a good idea that some body should take the woods in charge and preserve them for all to enjoy.
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Post by April on Oct 23, 2010 14:58:28 GMT
at least if it is taken over by the OPW it will be looked after and maintained, which is more than is happening now....
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Post by sugarloves on Oct 23, 2010 22:13:13 GMT
yes and they will pay the bill too, win win i think.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 24, 2010 1:34:49 GMT
I thought you might like to see some pictures of our beautiful cul-de-sac. The residents of this cul-de-sac have lived here for up to 30 years. They made this their home, and they bought their houses especially because of the magnificent view of Castletown woods, which is now pretty well their only green open space where children safely play in this beautiful landscape. Now Kildare County Council are planning to hand it over to the OPW to destroy this beauty by putting up an unsightly fence around it, even cutting off sizable parts of the grassy areas. The plans for this development have taken place behind closed doors, by collusion between KCC, the OPW, and the Castletown Residents Association, without any consideration shown to the wishes of the residents, who have been kept in the dark. When the OPW took over Castletown House, we welcomed them, knowing that they would do a superb job of restoring it, as it has been the pride and joy of the people of Celbridge since it was built. We never knew that they would put up ugly fences to keep the local people out of Castletown, or destroy their view of the woods from the outside. Now the residents are loosing all respect for the OPW, as they are showing none to us.
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Post by joepublic on Oct 24, 2010 2:10:46 GMT
The fencing to the side of Castletown House looks ok, if this is the type to be used then it's not bad. Have the details been made public? I somehow doubt if it's going to cut across grassy areas near houses but then I don't know.
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Post by Queenie on Oct 24, 2010 12:47:15 GMT
Know how you feel Raven. The same way that lots of local residents felt when a huge housing estate was built within the grounds of the beautiful house. Everywhere a house stands,was a green space beforehand. Including my own.
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Post by joepublic on Oct 24, 2010 13:35:03 GMT
A large number of mature trees were felled to make way for the building of Castletown Estate. I didn't witness it myself but heard from a few people who are living in Celbridge longer than I am. In our estate we fought hard to try and save 6 large trees and a section of green space where the developer managed to get permission to build more houses ten years after the estate was finished, as we thought. He got his way in the end.
The powers that be will go ahead and do what they think is necessary and sometimes if people don't agree they have to resort to physically trying to stop the work by doing some sort of protest like the Mayo Shell Oil protest.
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Post by sugarloves on Oct 24, 2010 19:39:33 GMT
beautiful photos raven o wish i had that view everyday, well maybe the opw will listen to your voice and i sure hope they do. its such a pity that the darlings wreck everything thats lovely to the eye around here shame on them, and their parents where are they i would love to know. we need more police i say to look at this going on and stop it.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 24, 2010 22:58:34 GMT
The fencing to the side of Castletown House looks ok, if this is the type to be used then it's not bad. Have the details been made public? I somehow doubt if it's going to cut across grassy areas near houses but then I don't know. Any fencing in this area would destroy it. The details haven't been made public yet, but I have a copy of the drawings and I can assure you that the proposal is to cut across the grass. If you look at the top of the cul-de-sac in the photos, the plan is to run the fence straight across to the end house close to the kerb, cutting off a large area of grass behind it. All of the fencing would be totally visible from the houses opposite the woods, and from the two adjoining streets.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 24, 2010 23:14:03 GMT
Know how you feel Raven. The same way that lots of local residents felt when a huge housing estate was built within the grounds of the beautiful house. Everywhere a house stands,was a green space beforehand. Including my own. But it is time to stop this destruction. If I had been here when Castletown housing estate was built I would have been horrified too, but I wasn't and it is too late now the damage is done. The housing estate should never have been built. I knew nothing about Castletown House before I came to Celbridge. I was looking for a place to live, and when I saw this beautiful view I decided to make this place my home. The estate was already ten years old.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 24, 2010 23:41:07 GMT
A large number of mature trees were felled to make way for the building of Castletown Estate. I didn't witness it myself but heard from a few people who are living in Celbridge longer than I am. In our estate we fought hard to try and save 6 large trees and a section of green space where the developer managed to get permission to build more houses ten years after the estate was finished, as we thought. He got his way in the end. There may have been more trees felled to build Abbey Farm at the beginning. I can't remember what was there. The residents where I live did have to resort to drastic measures some years ago to stop the destruction of the trees. At six o'clock one Saturday morning Kildare County Council sent in a JCB and started bulldozing the trees. They had to stop when elderly women lay down in front of it. We contacted the council and they sent a man up who told us they were cutting a swathe through the woods to service the drains. This was totally false. The reality was that they were doing it for the developer of the new estate next to us so that he could link up their drains to ours, which were already at capacity, instead of on to the Maynooth Road according to the plans. Emmet Stagg immediately got it stopped.
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Post by The Raven on Oct 24, 2010 23:46:05 GMT
beautiful photos raven o wish i had that view everyday, well maybe the opw will listen to your voice and i sure hope they do. its such a pity that the darlings wreck everything thats lovely to the eye around here shame on them, and their parents where are they i would love to know. we need more police i say to look at this going on and stop it. Thank you Sugarloves. I'm glad you appreciate the beauty of it. It would be a shame to see it vandalized by the OPW, and at considerable expense to the taxpayer in these times of economic downturn.
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