Over the past few days a number of residents have been in touch with me in connection with the Rocks Valley. They find this incredulous as the site is protected in our County Development plan which clearly says it is not to be interfered with. They are asking how can the local authority act in this manner, are they not answerable to anyone. I have told them they are that the members of Wicklow County Council have clearly made the decision that the Rocks Valley is not to be interfered with.

I would have to ask at this point what is going on , why is WCC behaving in this manner. How can the local authority executive show such disdain / lack of of democracy to a community and to public representatives. I am asking that the local authority executive immediately stop their illegal action and also clear out of the part of the site they are using and which they turned into what can only be described as a dump and return  it to the state it should be in .

The residents have reported the following to me.

  1.      Two council officials were at the yard that has no planning permission at the entrance to the rocks valley on the 5th of January 2017 they were accompanied by an official from the EPA .

  2.     Another council official arrived on the 6th of January 2017 putting up a new planning permission sign for the Dump, his name was BOB and he said he was a "site management officer".

  3.     A resident of the area asked  the council official named (BOB) what he was doing, he said he was replacing the planning permission sign as the old one had fallen off.

  4.    When asked why they were still planning to go ahead with the dump going against the wishes of the community Bob replied, if we don't go ahead with it we will just sell the land to a private developer and they will build what they like.

  5.     The resident said nobody wanted the valley damaged anymore than it already has been by the council because it was full of wildlife.

  6.      Bob replied that no animals  of any "worth or importance" lived in the valley.



 Regarding the unofficial  council yard , the residents have said the following to me.

   A.       It looks like a dump and that is off the councils own making, the council have been asked to clean it up but they never have.

   B.       All the council need to do to improve the appearance of the area is get rid of the disgusting dump/yard that they have caused.

   C.       The residents and the extended community want this yard cleaned up and vacated immediately.  

   D.       The residents want the gate removed and a hedgerow put back to replace the one the council removed without planning permission.

   E.        The council have no planning permission for this yard. They do not have the necessary site lines that are legally required for an entrance and they have no planning permission for the entrance.

                    .  Can Wicklow County Council prove/ show that they have planning for the yard, the EIS report states the site lines are not sufficient. They have 60 mfrs to the west and 160 mfrs are required.

                    .  There is no evidence of any planning for this yard. You have in fact opened a new entrance on to the road , there was never an entrance where you have it

   F.   The council seem quite happy bullying the residents of the area and they are even  in violation of their own County Development Plan chapter 10  heritage/biodiversity, their actions are despicable and     extremely short sited

   G.  They are abusing their position of power, violating the CDP and as public servants they are completely ignoring the citizens of Wicklow.

   H.  They can't say that they are doing this for us because we don't want it, nobody does.


         To sum up and having reflected on the issues the residents and community are raising and also taking into account what is stated clearly in our County Development Plan, approved by the members of Wicklow Council Council,  this is an issue of the most serious nature. The CEO must take control straight away and stop what is going on because it is certainly wrong and probably illegal. Failing this I say and the members of Wicklow County Council have to say that this issue be taken out of the hands of the Executive of Wicklow County Council. Surely our approved  County Development Plan stands for something, ?.

Cllr Tom Fortune