Joan MacArthur has been an active member of SAMRA since xxxx

She recalls some of SAMRA’s significant achievements over the years.

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Dedication and tenacity

In 2012 the Ringsend Water Treatment Plant was overloaded.

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That year An Bord Pleanala gave planning permission for the plant to build a 30-meter pipe from its plant to the sea bed sea.

 

This pipe was to be connected to another 9-kilometer pipe which would rested on the sea bed and take the untreated sewage to the Burfort Bank. There, another 30-meter pipe would take the sewage to the surface where it would be discharged into the sea.

 

SAMRA took a judicial review of the decision by An Bord Pleanala  to give the planning permission for this development to the High Court. Its case was against An Bord Pleanala, the Minister for Arts and Heritage and the Irish State, with Dublin City Council a notice party.

 

The Hight Court decided in SAMRA’s favour which cleared the way for the judicial review to proceed.

However, the State and Dubin City Council then decided to appeal the High Court’s decision to the Supreme Court.

 

After considering the various arguments, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict which was that the decision of the High Court stood. SAMRA was free to take a judicial review of An Bord Pleanala decision to allow untreated sewage to be deposited into the sea.

 

This is one of the many achievements by SAMRA over many decades where it has  advocated against others trying to destroy the beauty of Sandymount and the surrounding areas.

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There were once plans for the village green to be a traffic roundabout. It was only through the dedication and tenacity of SAMRA members who mined the records in London and found that if the Green was ever to be used for another purpose its ownership would revert to the estate of its original owner, Lord Pembroke.  The green remains intact.

 

Without SAMRA the Irishtown Nature Park on the Poolbeg Peninsula would be an oil terminal.

There was once a plan for gas storage caverns to be built under the Bay.

There were also plans for the eastern bypass to come across Sandymount Strand and following that plans to infill part of the strand.

 

SAMRA also worked with the EU to have Dublin Bay Biospheres established and successfully campaigned to have the strand declared a special amenity area.

 

It also worked with Dublin City Council and the Heritage Council to develop the Village Design Statement in 2012 which led to Sandymount Village being designated an architectural conservation area.

 

In xxxx SAMRA requested that the EU had sent someone over to check illegal dumping on the Poolbeg Peninsula. Three members came over and stopped the dumping. From memory I think it was Barnier

 

SAMRA was also very active in the design of the promenade

 

The amount of work needed to accomplish all of the above was enormous. Extensive campaigns, oral hearings, judicial reviews all supported by detailed research and planning knowledge, and dedication was needed to accomplish the above and many more was immense.