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Lorna & friends Cookstown SAT25SEPT21
t’s a familiar tune played on an ageing fiddle around here, but the onslaught of large estates is really getting out of hand.

Antique 1840 print
Especially given that Greystones, Delgany, Newtown and other golden goose neighbours are all rapidly running out of land.
The latest to feel the heat of a major developer’s roving eye is Enniskerry, the recent decision by An Bord Pleanála to give the thumbs up to 165 new houses on Cookstown Road sending shockwaves through the village.

Some healthy recycling
As with another Strategic Housing Development (where applications for 100 houses or more bypass Wicklow planning) in Delgany, such a move is akin to squeezing a town inside a village.
That this latest development is from Cairn Homes will surprise few locals, given that they’ve been busy over the past few years turning Greystones and Delgany into one big jigsaw puzzle of housing estates. Next up is 607 houses around Temple Carrig School. Hurrah!
Given that we’re all posh toffs in this particular purple patch of Wicklow, accusations of nimbyism have been bandied about, but the accusers should try and drive through Greystones main street during daylight hours just to witness the tip of the infrastructure iceberg the town is currently cruising towards.
Following Delgany’s decision to pull together €37,000 for a Judicial Review of the SHD approval for 230 houses at the village’s Carmelite Monastery, a group calling themselves Save Enniskerry are now fundraising for the very same shot at challenging Cairn Homes’ 165 dwellings.

Scalp Hotel, Enniskerry
t’s a familiar tune played on an ageing fiddle around here, but the onslaught of large estates is really getting out of hand.

