COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, May 12, 2008
HEADED ITEM NO. 11
REPORT ON PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCEDURE UNDER PART 8 OF THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS 2001 FOR THE PROPOSED NEW YOUTH DROP-IN CENTRE AND CONNECT CENTRE AT JOBSTOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE
At a meeting of the Tallaght Area Committee (1) held on 21ST May 2007 it was agreed to proceed with a public consultation process for the proposed Jobstown Youth Drop-in Facility and CONNECT Centre adjacent to the Jobstown Community Centre, Tallaght Dublin 24.
Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 prescribes the requirements in respect of certain classes of proposed Local Authority Developments. The Regulations apply to the proposed works involved in this proposal.
The proposal involvesthe construction of a new single storey building joining Jobstown Community Centre and the JADD Centre as a Youth Drop-in Facility and the Connect Centre for computer training courses and community use. The building will be 1200 sq ms in area and comprise of offices, youth activity rooms, educational areas and meeting facilities. Site works will include car-parking and landscaping as appropriate.
This proposed project was a local initiative by the Jobstown Community Council who set up a Youth Centre Committee, which is now a Company Limited by Guarantee, in 2001. Consultation took place with all the youth groups in the area to assess what the needs of the youth in the Jobstown area were. Following this consultation a feasibility study was prepared which showed the need for such a facility which included a drop in centre/youth café.
Various plans drawn up by the Committee to meet the needs within the area proved over costly and impossible for them to secure the full cost of the project despite funding sought from a number of sources.
After further discussion between the Community Department and the Youth Centre Committee it was decided to revisit the initial plans and funding of €1,650,000 had been identified. When the Community Department became aware that further funding was available from a stream of national funding for Social Community Infrastructure projects the Community Department recommended that this funding should be applied for the Youth Centre extension to include the e-Community Learning Hub CONNECT Project. The funding application was successful and was allocated €250,000.
When the funding of €250,000 allocated by the Department of Environment was included in the funding already identified it brought the budget to €1.9million. A further €450,000 was secured in early December 2006 from the YPFSF which brought the total budget to €2,350, 000.
The CONNECT project will greatly enhance the future of the Youth Drop-in Centre. South Dublin County Council envisions a future where everyone in South Dublin uses the internet as an everyday tool to improve their quality of life and where opportunities are developed for life-long learning, leisure, personal and social development and to support engagement in civic life. Connect is a range of complementary projects South Dublin County Council is currently developing to achieve this vision.
This proposal describes a potential Connect project as described in the above proposal as it matches the criteria laid out in the literature and has no other source of funding currently to ensure its fruition:
- To create local e-Community Learning Hubs providing inclusive community access to Information and Communication Technologies as tools to
- develop learning opportunities in disadvantaged communities and promoting e-Inclusion
- support community and voluntary activity and innovate new approaches to the development of social cohesion
- facilitate local access to e-Government and library services that cannot otherwise be provided in each location
Connect is a project that has emerged from the range of organisational changes that have taken place within South Dublin County Council and have led to the organisation looking differently at how our services are provided and how we embrace our responsibility for social inclusion and community development.
Connect has arisen from the belief that connecting people with accessible information that is relevant to their lives will enable more meaningful engagement to improve quality of life. Our communities are increasingly complex and diverse with persistent pockets of social exclusion and poverty, and yet the people in these communities are experiencing a declining social capital and many are time poor. Connect will develop new methods of engagement that are both sustainable for those communities and effective in creating positive results to meet these challenges.
The Two key outcomes of the Connect project will be
1. Transformation the Digital Divide into e-Inclusion
2. More informed and connected communities with new innovations in methods of engagement and active citizenship
Because of the e-Inclusion aims of the Connect project the promotions of the e-Community Learning Hubs will target ‘late adopters’ to technology. Many of these are already disadvantaged groups. As IT literacy is fast becoming a skill as fundamental as literacy and numeracy, the e-Community Learning Hubs will target those who are at risk of becoming even more marginalised in the Information Society.
The CONNECT project and the e-Community Learning Hub will be seen as hugely complimentary to the Drop-in Facility proposed.
CONSULTATION PROCESS:
The above proposed works were advertised in accordance with Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, in the Irish Independent on Monday 4th February, 2008. Drawings of the proposed development went on display at the Headquarters of South Dublin County Council, County Hall, Town Centre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 during normal office hours from Wednesday 20th February 2008 until 4th April 2008 at 5.00 p.m.
The closing date for receipt of submissions was Wednesday 18th April, 2008.
There were no submissions made during this period.
As there were no submissions objecting to the proposal and as the proposed works are consistent with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area and the South Dublin County Development Plan 2004 – 2010, it is recommended to proceed with the proposed works as advertised and subject to the identification and sourcing of the necessary funding for the project.
Links to Drawings: