What a day!

Hi everyone,

Well this morning I started my quest to find out what Councillors attended the 4 May meeting and which way they voted. Turns out the DLRCOCO website is wrong, there aren't 21-22 Councillors in the Dun Laoghaire area - there are 18!

Five voted against the car parking spaces:
Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Fine Gael)
Niamh Bhreathnach (Labour)
Denis O'Callaghan (Labour)
Carrie Smyth (Labour)
Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit)

Unfortunately eight voted for car parking spaces to be put on Newtownsmith/Sandycove Green:
John Bailey (Fine Gael)
Maria Bailey (Fine Gael)
Donal Marren (Fine Gael)
Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
Jane Dillon Byrne (Labour)
Stephen Fitzpatrick (Labour)
Victor Boyhan (Independent)

There's one more Councillor who voted for the parking spaces, I'll update who that is tomorrow.

Because so many Fine Gael and Labour Councillors voted for the parking spaces, I started emailing their parties first. Emails went to Eamon Gilmore of Labour and Sean Barrett of Fine Gael on Friday.

To their credit, both TDs came back to me today. Eamon telephoned and advised he'd be speaking to the Labour Councillors about the vote, and Sean advised via email that he would do the same with the Fine Gael Councillors. I really hope they will look at the campaign website and petitions and see how important this issue is to everyone and that the issue needs to be revisited.

What I believe we need is for the current vote to be overturned, and for a full Public Consultation to be instigated before any changes are made to Newtownsmith/Sandycove Green. This will ensure that the needs of the whole borough are taken into account, rather than just a few residents. The green belongs to everyone!

But in order for our voices to be heard, everyone needs to contact their Councillors. They are all listed on the http://www.savesandycovegreen.com/ website. Tell them this is an important issues for you, and it's one that you'll take into consideration when selecting your Councillor in the next election. These are our democratically elected Councillors, they have to act in a democratic way!

Thanks,
Lou x