“It started out as a football project and it's turned into a game changer for the area and surrounding areas,” says John Hayden, the chairman of Belvedere Football Club.
Requests for a school warden were previously turned down because it was considered too dangerous, said a councillor. In recent times, two other schools have been told the same.
Peter Byrne was refused an adjournment he asked for on medical grounds. His landlord, after saying it hadn’t had time to review the case, was granted one.
The council is making smaller improvements now, while working towards a major regeneration sometime in the future. Residents say that’s just not good enough.
There’s a cohort earning too much for social housing, but too little to qualify for the Land Development Agency’s new cost-rental “affordable” housing schemes.
Councillors at a recent meeting said they still have concerns about how well the council is protecting tenants from neighbours engaged in serious intimidation and drug dealing.
If the prices are higher than promised, “It will be a massive betrayal for the local community, for first-time buyers,” says Social Democrats Councillor Paul Mulville.
The council has committed to pay at least €40m over that 20 years to rent Avalon House, after taking over the lease from the Peter McVerry Trust in 2020.
“We need to know where we can find this funding to make people’s living conditions decent – because it is our human rights,” says Gayle Cullen, chair of the Oliver Bond Residents Group.
