A campaign to protect Dublin Bay from unwanted development and privatisation was launched yesterday on Sandymount Strand.
The Greater Dublin Bay Alliance (GDBA), including residents' associations and environmental groups from Greystones to Balbriggan, was formed following last year's Save Our Seafront (SOS) campaign, which successfully opposed the high-rise redevelopment of Dún Laoghaire Baths.
The group is to lobby Minister for the Environment Dick Roche for representation on the new Dublin Bay Association, a body established to draw up a master plan for the bay.
They also want to see a planning designation for the coastal corridor around the bay, which would make it a high-priority amenity area with development restrictions.
Concerns of the alliance include plans to develop Bulloch Harbour in Dalkey, Carlisle Pier in Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock Baths, the harbour at Greystones and the Poolbeg Peninsula, including plans for a waste incinerator and high-rise development.
On the north side of the bay, the alliance is backing Clontarf residents in their opposition to plans for a 52-acre infill, which they claim will worsen coastal erosion and flooding. They are also concerned with proposals to build a sewage treatment plant at Portrane Beach.
Evelyn Cawley, of the Greystones Protection and Development Association and one of the GDBA co-ordinators, said that the alliance is important to ensure the proper planning and development of the coast.
"We don't want something imposed on us - we want to be part of the process, to be genuinely consulted."
