Here is the latest from Hugh Brady:
“As you will be aware the UCD running track was closed due to health and safety concerns raised by an expert assessment of the surface and surrounds, and exacerbated by the onset of winter conditions. Since its development, the master plan for the Belfield campus has envisaged provision of a new running track in the Sports Precinct. Preparatory work started on this objective five years ago. A suitable site was identified and we quickly moved on to development of track design specifications, culminating in the granting of full planning permission in 2009. Initial enabling works have been undertaken and the site is ready to be developed once funding is secured. With the completion in Spring 2012 of the Student Learning, Leisure and Recreation Centre, approximately €66m will have been invested in UCD sports and recreational facilities in recent years. A new running track in the Sports Precinct is a priority for UCD in the context of the further development of our sports and recreation infrastructure. I have established a task force to spearhead the search for funding.”
A few questions:
* why on earth did a college that is up to its elbows in debt pay out €66m for sports facilites?
* what in plain English are “initial enabling works”?
* why is it better to spend €1.6m on a new track when the old one is perfectly serviceable – and in a better state than Alsaa or Irishtown?
* Do these people not undertand the meaning of the word “budget”? In the world of us little people, it means you don’t spend what you haven’t got.
This is a man who clearly deserves the job he craves in Harvard. Soon, please.
Background:
From the 2010 development plan issued by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Councy Council:
” Within the established urban areas of the County, however, the lack of available sites means that new opportunities for recreational facilities (i.e. playing pitches) are extremely limited. It is therefore necessary to seek to retain facilities in their current locations where they are of most value and accessible to the community being served.”
That’s pretty specific. Summing up the rest of it: playing facilities can only be taken away if they are going to be replaced. So in the context of UCD, the big question is when they are going to start work on the track at the Clonskeagh side of the campus for which they optained planning permission in 2008. UCD are already contravening County Council rules by closing off the existing facility, although they will probably still insist on playing the health and safety card.
* The full documentation can be read on an excellent thread at www.boards.ie.
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| Mageean – strong words |
* On RTE Radio 1’s Sport at Seven, Monday November 28 : Eamonn Coghlan on the “underhanded and sneaky” way UCD “spitefully” dug up the track to stop people jogging their few laps. At 16 minutes into the programme. Brian Mullins claimed in another programme that he had asked Coghlan to join a committee to ensure a new track would be built; Coghlan has yet to hear from anyone from UCD.
*We also hear that Ciara Mageean had strong words for Mullins at a meeting last week; she had come to UCD because there was a track on cmapus. So what was UCD going to do now?
* Another point: with the removal of the hammer cage, Dublin’s hammer have a choice – they can train either in Santry or Greystones. There is not one single facility for them between these two points. And this for a discipline we invented!
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