The People Before Profit Alliance today condemned plans to pull down Carlisle Pier behind the back of the public and talks between Harbour Company and Stena over possible sale of harbour
In a statement today Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) condemned plans by Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company to demolish the buildings on the historic Carlisle Pier starting on September 1st, without any public consultation.
Documents seen by Cllr Boyd Barrett showed that the state owned Harbour Co has detailed plans for the demolition of the buildings on the pier, which are known to be packed full of dangerous Asbestos.
Cllr Boyd Barrett understands that preparatory work for the demolition has already begun with fittings and other items now being stripped out of the interior of the Pier buildings.
The documents seen by Cllr Boyd Barrett also showed that the Harbour Co was currently involved in discussions with the Stena shipping line, where the sale or handover of the whole harbour to the Ferry Company was one of a number of options being discussed for the harbour’s future.
This comes at the same time that Harbour management have told staff that they are seeking redundancies for up to half of the workforce.
The revelation about plans for the pier come on top of a long running battle between local residents and the Harbour Company over attempts by the company to privatise the Carlisle Pier – most recently with plans to build a ten-storey apartment block on the site, a plan which has since been shelved.
Cllr Boyd Barrett called for any plans to pull down the Carlisle Pier buildings to be abandoned until there was a proper public consultation on its future.
He said also said that any agenda to privatise all or part of the harbour was utterly unacceptable and that the harbour was the property of the public and should be developed only in the public interest.
The Save Our Seafront group, which is chaired by Cllr Boyd Barrett, has long campaigned for the redevelopment of the Carlisle Pier as a location for public, maritime and heritage amenities.
Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“These revelations represent an enormous scandal. It’s a disgrace that a state-owned company, which includes a number of County Councillors on its board, and which is under the Department of transport, is involved in a plan to demolish the Carlisle Pier, without any advance notification or consultation with the public. It is clearly no coincidence that moves to demolish the pier have commenced during the holiday period when the Harbour Co knows it will be harder for concerned members of the public to mount opposition.
It is made even more serious given that the Carlisle Pier is packed full of dangerous asbestos that represents a very serious health hazard to any workers involved in the demolition and to members of the public in the vicinity.
If the Council were made aware of these plans and have chosen to do nothing or even quietly give the go ahead, it would be an absolute outrage. It seems difficult to believe that the Harbour Co would try and do something of this magnitude, unless they had prior knowledge that Council managers were not opposed. I will certainly be doing everything to get to the truth of that matter.
It also simply outrageous that the Harbour Co should be involved in any discussions whatsoever about the sale or handover of the harbour to a private shipping company or, as we have also heard rumoured, planning to sell the Carlisle Pier to one of the private yacht clubs as a car-park.
All these revelations come as the Harbour Co has recently indicated to harbour staff that they intend to renege on agreements made with workers at the time the Harbour was transferred from the direct control of the Office of Public Works to it’s current semi-state status. Back in 1996, at the time of the transfer, workers were promised all jobs would be safe but recently the company informed workers that they were looking for in the region of a 50% cut in the workforce
The fact that the former CEO of the Harbour Company, Michael Hanahoe, recently resigned and was replaced by Gerry Dunne further suggests new concerted agenda to carve up a public asset to benefit private commercial interests.
In one way, none of this will come as much of surprise to local people. Locals, traditional harbour users and harbour workers have said for years that there was an agenda of creeping privatisation at work within the Harbour Co, supported by the government and the Council. We now seem to have clear evidence that this is the case, and that the powers that be care nothing at all about public opinion or the fate of harbour workers and users.
Dun Laoghaire Harbour is this county’s most important public amenity; it is the jewel in the crown of our local and maritime heritage, with enormous national historic significance. The Carlisle Pier, as the site that was the exit point for vast numbers of the Irish Diaspora, is a hugely important historic site.
It is totally unacceptable that profit driven interests should seek to interfere with the public’s harbour or any part of it without public agreement or even worse try to privatise it. The public should express their outrage at this disgraceful conniving behind their backs and demand that the harbour remains fully in public ownership and is developed only in the public interest.
The Harbour Co should now be disbanded completely and the harbour should revert back from its current semi-state status to full public ownership. The Harbour made over €10 million surplus last year and is capable of generating further revenue if it’s developed sensitively and sensibly as a working harbour and public amenity. This potential should benefit the public not be handed over to private interests. Direct public ownership could also save on the €140,000 per year salaries received by a number of executives on the board and the €12,000 per year each received by other board members.
