BALLYMUN RESIDENTS remain sceptical about promises for an ambitious redevelopment of Ballymun Town Centre. At 255,000 sq mts, Spring Cross is one of the largest developments ever granted in Dublin and Real Estate Opportunities is aiming for completion by 2013.

However, local residents point to the occupied corporation flats saying these must be the first to go in any attempt to regenerate the area.

“If you look around in Ballymun, everything they claim to do within a certain amount of time is already five years behind. All the flats should be gone by now. They should have all been gone by 2009/2010,” said Mary Carpenter, an accountant and resident in Ballymun for over 20 years.

“They are putting priority into the private building. That’s how I see it. The hotels are getting built quick enough, the office blocks are getting built quick enough. A lot of the things that people need aren’t.

“I know a girl who lived in a one-bedroom flat with her three kids. She had to fight hammer and nail to get out of there.

Derek McCabe works in the Ballymun Shopping Centre and has seen shops close down all around him.

Instead of starting a new development, he said the shopping centre is simply in need of refurbishment and more businesses.

According to Mr McCabe, the Spring Cross development alone, will not draw more people to Ballymun. “Who would hop out in Ballymun just to do a little bit of shopping? “Ballymun has very good people but it has a stigma. I could be wrong but I don’t think a new shopping centre would change that.

“I think they should concentrate on the houses first before they think about the shopping centre.”

Catherine Cole who operates a charity shop in the shopping centre disagrees. “The development is very badly needed in the area because there are not an awful lot of shops in the shopping centre at the moment and it will help the area.”

Local resident Catherine O’Reilly also works in Ballymun, as a nurse. She thinks a new shopping centre would give “a boost to people” but she remains sceptical that it would draw people to the area. “I live and work in the area and there are very nice people here but if I was not working in the area, I would not come into it.”

Anne Fahy who works in Ballymun adds, “Unless they regenerate the whole area, the shopping centre isn’t going to make a huge difference.”