Council abandons Dolphin's Barn regeneration plan

RESIDENTS OF St Teresa’s Gardens in Dolphin’s Barn are to meet Dublin City Council tomorrow over its decision to abandon the public private partnership (PPP) regeneration of their flat complex.

The 1950s estate of 346 flats in 14 four-storey blocks was to have been demolished and replaced with 300 social and affordable units, 300 private apartments, retail and commercial units, and community buildings.

A regeneration board for the work was established in December 2005 and spent several years working on a master plan for the redevelopment.

The council put the project out to tender as a PPP and had last year selected four preferred bidders who were to progress to presenting designs for the development. Despite the collapse last year of five similar flat regeneration schemes due to have been built by developer Bernard McNamara, three bidders remained in the running to rebuild St Teresa’s Gardens this year.

As late as last February the council changed the zoning of St Teresa’s Gardens in the city development plan to allow the regeneration to go ahead.

However, since then the decision has been taken to abandon the competition for the project.

“We have unfortunately had to abandon the PPP process. We weren’t in a position to move forward with it and we had got to the stage where we would have been giving more detailed specification to the bidders and they would have had to spend considerable money at that stage, so we felt we couldn’t allow that to happen,” Anne Graham, manager of the south central area of the city said.

It became clear during the course of the year that banks were not releasing funding for this type of development and that the ratio of public to private development the council needed was not going to be viable for developers.

It was likely the council would have to rely on its own funds and Department of Environment funding for the redevelopment of the complex, Ms Graham said.

However, she said there was no date planned for when the project would be revisited.

“Unfortunately we have to give priority at this stage for the PPPs that had been at an advanced stage of planning.”

Local Sinn Féin councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh said the residents who are meeting the council tomorrow are worried they will be forgotten about.

“Unfortunately I can see it being five to seven years, before this comes back on track,” she said.