So you thought corrupt planning was the stuff of tribunals and a thing of the past? Not so. The current type involves blackmailing the community by promising a vital facility if they surrender open space to more housing, enriching a handful of developers and landowners in the process.

The worry of parents about schools for their children in Dublin West is being exploited in a proposal by Fingal County Council to rezone 140 acres of green belt at Kellystown, Clonsilla, for 1,500 houses. Two school sites and some pitches will be included. 

The schools crisis arises from the failure of local and central government to plan in a sustainable way. The population of greater Blanchardstown is almost 100,000, but schools, transport and recreation have not accompanied the rampant house building.

Parents are anxious to get another secondary school for Castleknock – needed within the next year. Council miscalculations are to blame for this school deficit as they insisted for years that the existing Castleknock Community College was sufficient!

Residents are being asked to take 1,500 houses, worsening gridlock and the loss of vital green space (near the Liffey Valley), in exchange for two sites being made available for schools. This is unacceptable planning. Apart from anything else, more schools will be needed for those thousands of new residents within a few short years – where will they go? 

The Socialist Party recently organised a public meeting on this. We say the arm-twisting of the community by developers must stop. This rezoning must be rejected but an emergency plan on schools should be put into operation to quickly secure a secondary school site, using Compulsory Purchase Order if necessary.

CPO is used to acquire land for roads and railways, so why not schools? The Planning and Development Act 2000 gives such powers but councils have thus far not used them. The Council and Department of Education should meet immediately  with the local secondary school action group to discuss this and the availability of temporary accommodation  for next year.