Sispar's latest plan: Why GUBOH is not satisfied

THE GREYSTONES GIVE US BACK OUR HARBOUR group has rejected the plans for temporary access to the harbour put forward by developer Sispar at a meeting on Tuesday 28 June. • First, this plans fails on timing. The proposed start date for the work means that the area of the harbour to be opened will not be available for public use until summer is over and the children have gone back to school. Sispar mentioned public access next September. This is not good enough. • The Sispar plan removes only about 70 metres of the hoardings. Hundreds of metres will stay in place, all the way from the harbour entrance up along the North Beach Road, so that businesses and residents in the area will remain behind hoardings for at least 13 or 14 months, until September next year at the earliest. “This hoarding is damaging to local business and a huge imposition on residents. The medical centre could be constructed in a manner which allows a great deal more hoarding to be removed,” Miller continued. • The Sispar plan proposes the minimum public space. Most of the space to the south of the slipway will be taken up by a 90-space car park together with the temporary access road to the boat pens and pier. No green area is proposed. The public space on the shore side of the harbour is limited to the short beach and a narrow strip behind it, plus access to the upper level of the south pier. “The Sispar plan includes less public space than any of the proposals submitted to the company,” said GUBOH. “There is no green area, no seating, no picnic space, and no plaza. Instead, Sispar proposes to occupy most of the area with an ugly car park which could easily be located elsewhere.” GUBOH spokesman Basil Miller on the Morning Show on EastCoast FM.