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[image alt="21766648_580967695627679_8929666182250789712_n" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/09/21766648_580967695627679_8929666182250789712_n-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Our%20Lady's%20Grove%20-%20Save%20Our%20Land%20" credit-via="Facebook" caption="A%20teleporter%20toppled%20over%20on%20the%20construction%20site%20beside%20the%20grounds%20of%20Our%20Lady's%20Grove%20school%20in%20Dublin.%20" class="alignnone" /end]
PARENTS HAVE RAISED health and safety concerns after a construction vehicle – a teleporter – involved in construction work beside the grounds of a school toppled over onto a walkway.
Part of the school grounds of Our Lady’s Grove on Goatstown Road, Dublin 14, previously used for children’s activities, was sold to developers for a reported €13 million earlier this year.
A primary school, secondary school, Montessori and daycare centre are located on the adjacent land still owned by the Order of Jesus and Mary.
Parents have maintained their campaign against the sale of the land to developers, who recently began construction work on 80 homes.
The parents have voiced concerns that the development could create road safety problems and congestion issues, as well as limit further development at the school, where places are reportedly in demand.
Fears were heightened this week after a teleporter toppled over, crashed through the wooden boards that surround the construction area and landed onto the pavement of the school access road at around midday yesterday.
It’s understood that the incident happened around the same time as the Montessori was closing and young children were being collected. A number of paramedics attended the scene.
“Imagine if that was a busy school collection time. Any number of children could have been trapped or injured,” Mary Madden, who has a child at Our Lady’s Grove primary school said.
According to Madden, the road that leads to the school building is the same road that is now being used as the construction site access point. This is where the incident with the teleporter happened.
Ongoing battle
Madden is just one of many parents who are fighting against the development through the Our Lady’s Grove Save Our Land campaign.
“When the campaign initially started, I was disappointed that a religious order could sell school playing fields or school grounds,” Madden told TheJournal.ie.
“The health and safety issues were one of our concerns all along but they were never one of my main concerns.
This incident has really made parents sit up and think ‘hang on, this is going to be carrying on for the next couple of years’.
“It’s a small road with two roundabouts, kids are walking, cycling and scooting, parents are driving and dropping off. It’s just madness. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have a different side access,” she said.
A number of cement trucks are reported to have caused “major disruptions” to the traffic in and out of the school grounds upon their arrival last week.
[image alt="21752154_579043022486813_7850829833370759302_n" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/09/21752154_579043022486813_7850829833370759302_n-296x222.jpg" width="296" height="222" credit-source="Our%20Lady's%20Grove%20-%20Save%20Our%20Land%20" credit-via="Facebook" caption="A%20number%20of%20cement%20trucks%20driving%20up%20along%20the%20school%20entrance%20road.%20" class="alignnone" /end]
The school issued a notice to parents which advised children to walk, not scooter or cycle into school.
“I don’t really know how walking to school would make a difference. Maybe to slow things down a little bit but kids still have to walk past the trucks,” Madden said.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has been notified of the incident.
The HSA said that the driver of the teleporter was not injured but was treated for shock.
“As the incident is now under investigation we cannot make any further comment,” the authority said.
Our Lady’s Grove and the developers have been contacted by TheJournal.ie for comment.
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Greedy greedy johnny r…. Would see it empty before lowering his obscene rent
Who owns the building?
Neenee, read it again. Johnny r owns it.
Ickendel Limited, which is owned by Johnny Ronan.
I wonder if this €1.5 million goes towards the 2 billion Euro debt that Johnny owes to the Irish taxpayer
or to his personal slush fund?
A bit unfair really, especially when hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are picking up his tab are loosing their homes.
What did Lenihan say again
“NAMA is not going to be a bailout for developers”
It does’nt say Johnny R owns it???
It’s likely Bewley’s will be turned into some souless British or American retail outlet and another piece of Dublin’s inner city history will be consigned to the historical dustbin. All because of the greed of a vulture landlord. Disgusting.
Just like the one on Westmoreland Street….
theyre going to re-open in six months but only serving coffee and cakes mainly. there will not be any more hot food.
most of the staff are young foreign students anyway… i’d imagine lots of part time zero hour jobs lost here. awful news.
Upward only rents are simply ludicrous! Adapting to the economic conditions at any given time would see more small companies surviving, in times of downturn.
As for Bewley’s departing, albeit temporarily, what a loss.
How else would the talentless associates of Ireland’s elite profit off the back of the Irish public other than through their unskilled ventures in our beloved property market, which has the sole purpose of facilitating those within our society’s golden circle in accumulating wealth they have no entitlement to.
Probably gonna be replaced by YET ANOTHER Starbucks.
The irony is that if they did it would probably be profitable inside a year.
That establishment is spectacularly badly run with too many staff and too many products for sale. It needs to be scaled back to a fixed menu with more of a focus on production line serving.
Please god not. Starbucks is horrible
Exactly, as if our streets need another bloody Costa/Starbucks. Very fond memories of travelling up to Dublin and having tea in Bewleys, beautiful structure and interior. The rent on the building is obscene, many of the larger chains would even struggle with that.
And whats wrong with that? I’m walking across the whole damn street to get a coffee! Have you SEEN how busy it can be on Grafton Street!?
That is a shame, it is such a beautiful building, hopefully they do not ruin the original design with some modern boring corporate design.
Oh no…does that mean no more lunch time plays ?
The red thumbers are obviously not fans of of Irish theatre.
Very weird been there once or twice and was packed every time mid afternoon hence I didn’t go there much again – queue.
Such a shame. I’m in there every second week almost, it’s my go-to place in town. The hot food is the best, I don’t know how they’ll survive without it. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a cold, empty Starbucks!
Sad to see this go, lunchtime plays were a real treat, but honestly, how can any cafe be expected to take in over €4,000 a day just to cover rent! Hard to imagine that this was possible even in the good years.
Hmmmm. I thought Johnny was in nama ??????
I thought that too.
But it seems only the billions of bad debts that he wants to cast off onto the Irish taxpayer are in NAMA.
High rents have caused that
Can the workers go to the Supreme Court and counter sue Nama and Johnny Rohan foe their wages.
If the rent was a third of what it is… They would still be loosing money.
Rent may be an issue. But bad management and product are clearly having the much greater impact.
They really should have focused on take-away coffee serving near the entrance. You don’t see anyone walking around with Bewleys cups in their hands. That’s where the money is. Insomnia coffee is muck, but they get the customers.
Greed works both ways. I don’t think their any model on treating employee’s with Respect on wage or other terms.
Lads what ever else you do to the building do NOT remove the Harry Clarkes. And use them to promote the place internationally.
How is it possible? That place is always packed!
Rents have gone up and so have costs.
If rent is €1.5 million a year, they need to make €125,000 a month (on top of costs for staff, food, etc) just for rent. That’s a lot of coffees.
E have you seen the prices they are charging in there?
Even so…
Pure greed
140 Staff in a Cafe! That seem to me to be a very high level of staffing!
Several floors, long opening hours and a mixture of waiting, kitchen and (presumably) admin staff all add up. The long hours in particular would require a lot of extra staff.
I know the main issue was always described as rent, why doesn’t suggest a famous name actually buy a property and not rent?
Property rarely comes up for sale on Grafton St.
Most can’t even afford it when playing monopoly!!
Because they are tied into a lease and would have to pay out to end of lease as long as company continues to trade.
Even if they could get someone to sell them a property on Grafton St and even if they could afford it, it’s more tax efficient for most companies to rent rather than buy property.
Very impressed at the surprisingly high number of people here who can afford to dine in Bewleys. Things are looking up. I haven’t visited one since 2004.
Wait. Do they have Welfare Wednesdays?
If its iconic it must have made good money at some stage ,how come they didn’t buy the building , or any building ?
Would you have sold it, if you owned it ?
Why haven’t they bought that building from the owner? If they’ve been there that long and all.. mental.
The owner would have to be willing to sell the building. I can’t see them wanting to give up a guaranteed €1.5 million annual rental income from one property. Also as the building is owned by a company, loosing such a substantial asset could lower the value of the company which would also have to be approved by the shareholders. And as we all know keeping companies and their shareholders rich is a higher priority in this country than anything else.
Keeping companies and their shareholders profitable is a legal obligation of every company director in the country.
Maybe Bewleys should try to avail of the arrangement similar to the one Ronan got from the taxpayer via NAMA, that allows you to jettison unwanted bad debts while you keep all your prized assets and income?
I’m aware of that but I don’t think the legal rights of the shareholders will be much comfort to the 140 people who have just lost their jobs.
Because it’s not for sale, Ben.
It would make a great Nespresso megastore.
Sad but rents in Dublin are too high!
Government needs to act!
An another excuse for bewleys to hit workers in pocket again.
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