Baths plan has merit but must wash its face financially

There's a lot more to plans for the site of Dún Laoghaire's derelict baths than simplistic slogans about privatising the seafront, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

If you were to believe the Save Our Seafront group, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is involved in "an underhand and shameful attempt to privatise the public seafront" at Scotsman's Bay, by putting "a huge, exclusive, privately-owned barrier between the coast road and the sea".

The group, which is led by Socialist Workers Party activist Richard Boyd Barrett, claims this would "destroy a part of the seafront as a natural amenity". It opposes "any development that would obscure the sea view or damage the coastal vista" and wants the old sea baths developed as a public amenity.

There is strong opposition locally to the council's plan to replace the baths with an indoor swimming and leisure complex, infilling five acres of the seafront for a "maritime park", and to pay for this by developing 180 apartments with shops and cafés at ground-floor level on the site of the baths.

The design concept put forward by an in-house team envisages that the apartments would be arranged in two curved blocks stepping up from four storeys to a 10-storey circular tower at the Sandycove end of the site and enclosing a "civic plaza" and amphitheatre with a variety of proposed uses.

There can be no doubt that the scheme would fundamentally alter this stretch of the seafront as well as existing vistas in the area. Terraced stucco-fronted houses facing the promenade at Newtownsmith, which currently enjoy open sea views, would be most directly affected by the scale and bulk of the proposal.

But what exactly are the protectionists seeking to protect? The existing baths are derelict. The seafront area alongside them is not particularly accessible, nor is it attractive. The relatively narrow strip of promenade between the East Pier and the baths faces north-east and gets hardly any sunshine.

Although the pier and the promenade at Newtownsmith are intensively used, the grim, graffiti-scarred intermediate zone attracts few walkers. It is frequented by hobos and, according to senior council planner Richard Cremins, is a venue for open-air drinking. "Frankly, I wouldn't let my kids go down there."

One of the principal benefits of the council's plan would be to create a public park here, similar in size to People's Park. By extending outwards into the sea, it would also capture some sun while the rock-armoured breakwater would protect the area against "accelerating coastal erosion", as Cremins put it.

He sees the plan as a linchpin of the council's strategy to revitalise Dún Laoghaire; another is the redevelopment of Carlisle Pier, which was also strenuously opposed by the Save Our Seafront group. "Dún Laoghaire has to look to its laurels and there is the potential for a 'golden mile' here," he said.

Previous schemes for the baths site were "too narrowly focused", so the council had decided to take a broader view. "We had to get enough development on the site to pay for the public amenities. Private residential is the most profitable element and would contribute an estimated €40 million."

Asked about the fact that apartments had been ruled out of earlier plans, Cremins pointed out that the county development plan adopted in July 2004 had changed the zoning of the site; residential, retail and hotel uses were all now "open for consideration" within the context of its amenity zoning.

As for the baths, county architect Derek Jago said the nature of swimming in Ireland has changed from cold sea water to warm water bathing indoors.

"An open sea water pool is only useful in the summer months, whereas what's needed is an all-year-round facility. The old Victorian model has had its day."

Project architect Eugene Gribben said they were taking advantage of an 11-metre fall on the site to install the proposed waterworld-style leisure complex below the level of Queen's Road, underneath the civic plaza. It would have "sun scoops" in its roof to bring plenty of daylight into the pool area.

The plan envisages that the amphitheatre above could be used for ice-skating in winter and roller-blading in summer - though how these activities would appeal to the apartment residents overlooking it is another matter. It would also provide a new venue for Dún Laoghaire's annual Festival of World Culture.

"In designing this scheme, we've taken particular account of orientation and the need to shelter the site from the north-east," Gribben says. Thus, the civic plaza is embraced by an arc of development while the shops/cafés on Queen's Road would be double-fronted to "flood it with evening sun".

The advice of marine engineers was sought on the design of the curved breakwater, which would be topped by a promenade 10 metres in width extending more than 400 metres from the East Pier to Newtownsmith. It would also form part of the proposed "S2S" cycle route from Sutton to Sandycove.

In designing the park, landscape architect Les Moore said the aim was to provide "showpiece gardens with a maritime theme". The swirling design would incorporate a children's play area, water fountains like those at Parc Bercy in Paris and serpentine seating similar in form, if not colour, to Gaudi's Parc Guell.

Moore emphasised that "100 per cent public access to the seafront" would be maintained, with three direct access points from the promenade as well as a boat slipway. "The objective is to provide access, linkage and event performance," he said. It would even include a "trim trail" for public keep-fit exercises.

The residential and retail development would have a two-level underground car-park with 336 spaces, half of which would be public. One of the options being considered is to extend this beneath the park. "We might as well fill it with cars as anything else," Derek Jago said. The extra spaces would all be public.

As yet, the whole scheme is merely a concept.

Detailed design work would start only after a decision is made by the county council on whether to go ahead with it, at a meeting scheduled for June 7th. After that, an environmental impact statement would be prepared for approval by An Bord Pleanála.

At that stage, tenders would then be invited from developers for a building licence to construct the apartments and retail units in the scheme, rather than have it replaced by a new design. "This is not a profit-making proposition. All we would expect is that it would wash its face," Richard Cremins said.

Neither is it a dastardly plan to privatise the seafront around Scotsman's Bay, as the simplistic slogans would have us believe.