Square deal to start a saga

AroundtheBlockInteresting to see war breaking out over another of Dublin's major squares - Dartmouth - wedged between Leeson Street and Ranelagh.

Athlone stone merchant Noel O'Gara has quietly nipped in and bought the freehold of the square much to the chagrin of the families living in the grand Victorian three-storey houses which overlook it.

It sounds very like the saga over Belgrave Square grounds in Monkstown, a 2.5-acre garden which was sold back in 1998 to an outsider, businessman Eugene O'Connor, for no less than £150,000.

Mr O'Connor eventually sold on the grounds to the aggravated residents, at a handsome profit, because of fears that the precious green would be converted for no less than 20 different uses ranging from dog kennels to a supermarket. A garden centre and cemetery were also mooted at the time. Dartmouth Square is somewhat smaller, but may well have the same potential. The well-heeled residents will obviously be anxious to maintain the privacy of the gardens which have undergone expensive landscaping. Other square dwellers beware.

Lots of PR in store

Trust the Irish Planning Institute to run to the defence of An Bord Pleanála as it continues to take flak over its somewhat weird decisions to block housing schemes, notably in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area. The institute contacted this column with a rather long-winded justification for the Bord and its workings in relation to the present stand-off between it and new homes agency Hooke & MacDonald. The Bord has a big PR job to do to convince developers that they are making the right decisions, given that State policy favours high density schemes.

The reality on the ground is that once a shortage of new homes surfaces, it invariably leads to higher prices. This is already happening in several areas, where agents are having to deal with long waiting lists because of an undersupply of new homes.

In one instance in south Dublin, an agency claims to have over 800 names in waiting for a development of just 120 homes. Clearly the Government will not be slow to act if prices seem to be spiralling out of the reach of first-time buyers. The Bord is but part of the entire planning mechanism for housing. It would be foolish to take itself too seriously.

Mad about marina

It might be cold outside but temperatures are beginning to rise in the drawingrooms of Greystones and its new sister neighbourhood of Charlesland. Contributors to the Greystones/Charlesland sub-forum on www.boards.ie have been slugging it out over the merits of the proposed new marina in the Co Wicklow town with some of the new residents backing the project and accusing the more long-toothed of snobbery in relation to Charlesland, a major new housing development south of the town. One contributor wrote: "There has been a hugely snobbish reaction from existing Greystones residents to Charlesland (e.g. the 'Little Tallaght' nickname mentioned earlier), so that automatically makes me disinclined to support any of the existing residents group's efforts to block further development."

This was met with the likes of "this development is disgusting, oversized, unwanted and the fact that the Wicklow Co Co are trying to bulldoze this through under the guise of public private partnership is ridiculous." As the decision of An Bord Pleanála on the development draws closer, expect exchanges to increase in intensity.