Louth councillor refuses to zone more land until wastewater issue resolved

“Until I see a wastewater treatment plant that's fit for purpose, I will not be zoning any land south of Dundalk”, Cllr Shane McGuinness has told the Dundalk Democrat, in response to a call from Minister for Housing James Browne to local authorities to zone more land for housing, and the Dundalk South councillor has called out Louth TDs and Senators based in the county for not doing more to resolve the wastewater treatment issue in Blackrock.

It follows a protest in Blackrock last Saturday morning organised by concerned parents, who believe untreated sewage is appearing on the beach and that the water in the sea at Blackrock is polluted. According to Cllr McGuinness, around 500 people attended the protest, on what was a very wet day.

Speaking to the Dundalk Democrat, Cllr McGuinness said that “I've been very outspoken over the last number of years about why we got to that point. It might be controversial, some people it mightn't sit well with them, but the bottom line is I got elected and went for election, for this reason, and it was infrastructural issues in Blackrock and Haggardstown, and Dundalk South in general.

“I have been very vocal over the last six to eight months, about the lack of funding for the Dundalk South area. Because it's the most populated area of the entire five electoral areas of Louth. But it gets the least amount of funding.I believe that in particular for Blackrock and Haggardstown, we have the most zoned land of any other area in the county. And that has been done from previous councillors in the last 10 to 12 years.”

The Fianna Fáil councillor said that a lot of people at the protest on Saturday were unaware that councillors “have very little control over things within a county”. Cllr McGuinness continued: “But we do have control to zone land. That is a reserved function, one of the very few [we have]. For too long, too much land in Blackrock and Haggardstown has been zoned. And also I feel that the reason for that was we didn't have a local councillor. For 15 years we haven't had a local councillor. I feel that politics is local.

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“So with that in mind, when I got elected, one of the things I brought up about a year and a half ago was the levels of bacteria in our water, and in turn the Blackrock and Haggardstown Community Forum was set up.” The Fianna Fáil councillor went on to say that one of the group's first projects was its opposition to an application by Glenveagh to build over 500 homes in Blackrock.

“One of the strongest reasons why we went against that was we do not have capacity in our sewerage systems. The council turned down a number of planning applications with them and said the same thing – we don't have the infrastructure.

“That's where the real part of this came along. Brian Hopper really took a personal interest in it, and he's brilliant. We did more investigations and we realised that it was getting worse and worse. With all the investigations, the millions and millions of litres of untreated sewage that's going into the sea has totally become unacceptable.

“I've put a number of motions in over the last six to eight months in the council. And one of my main motions was that we need to get the Oireachtas members [from Louth] into a room. I called out at one of my meetings, 'what is the content of the Oireachtas/County Council meetings', which happen three times a year.

“I called them out and asked them, 'what's the content of these meetings, what are they discussing? Can I get some minutes of these meetings to see? We have a serious situation in Dundalk South with Blackrock, with parking, with massive infrastructure deficits, and I want to know what they're talking about.

“Because the council are saying they don't have the money to finance infrastructural deficits, even though I'm challenging them on the fact that they get building levies from Dundalk South but the spend them on other parts of the county. Saturday was the people coming out, going, 'we now have a problem, how do we fix it?'

“To fix it, this money comes from central government. And it is going to take €25-€30 million to fix it. And that sort of money is out of councillors control, and it's at the next level.”

Cllr McGuinness said that as far as he was aware there were no Louth TDs or Senators at the protest on Saturday. Pointing to the announcement last week from Uisce Éireann, that it has commenced a major €22 million infrastructure project to upgrade the wastewater network in North Drogheda, Cllr McGuinness said:

“We've got our Oireachtas members all congratulating, saying this is great news, but our Oireachtas members in Dundalk are very few. We have three TDs in Drogheda and that's why I believe we got the money for Drogheda.

“The council and the Oireachtas members when they sit down, they must be fair, they must show fairness. And I don't believe that that money should have went to Drogheda. I believe it should have went to the existing problem that's happening in Dundalk South.

“We've only one in Dundalk, the other one's in Carlingford, and I believe that's the crux of our problem in Blackrock. No local councillor for 15 years and no Oireachtas members that are local. And I believe politics is local and that's why Drogheda got the money and we didn't.”

Calling out Louth TDs and Senators, Cllr McGuinness said. “I don't think they're vocal enough. Why don't the TD s come out and say what the problem is with not getting money for Blackrock and Haggardstown? I'm angry, that the people that should be making the calls, and coming out and being honest and truthful, why did Drogheda get the money when we are in a crisis. I'm not anti-Drogheda, but I'm a Dundalk councillor.”

Cllr McGuinness concluded by focusing on the number who attended last Saturday's protest: “I don't know any protest where 500 people came out ever in my lifetime in Blackrock or Haggardstown. And I'm totally in support of them.

“I don't think our senior politicians are being fair to them. They need to come out and they need to tell them. We have the Minister now challenging us councillors to zone more land now in Blackrock and Haggardstown, and I am going to be stringently against this.Until I see a wastewater treatment plant that's fit for purpose, I will not be zoning any land south of Dundalk."