A group of Malahide residents and businesses say they are initiating legal proceedings to force Fingal Co Council to implement their own Development Plan.
They are bringing the case because of the Council’s “multiple attempts” to change the main thoroughfare street of Malahide.
‘Save Malahide’ is a group of local businesses and residents who say they are concerned about the effects of pedestrianisation of New Street, Malahide and want to highlight what is happening to the village.
“The issue of yet another example of planning by press release by Fingal Co Council is the last straw” said Nicola Byrne, a resident of Old Street, Malahide.
In a statement Save Malahide said the issue for them are the repeated attempts by the council to propose a “constantly changing version of the future use of New Street.”
“Without public notice, the Council closed the street on June 15,” the statement said.
“In doing so, it described many, varying and often contradictory aims.
“First it was a walking and cycling initiative, then a Covid protection scheme, later a Public Realm Scheme, then a pedestrianisation scheme and, more recently, a re-purposing initiative and an aid to business recovery.
“From the very outset, local residents and businesses have drawn attention to the fact that a fully supported and lawfully adopted Public Realm Strategy for Malahide already achieved every one of these objectives and should be implemented at once – as has been done with the much-admired renovation of the nearby Green.
“As the closure took hold, evidence accumulated of growing local distress about businesses losses, inconvenience and increasing public order issues.”