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[Press Release: January 11th, 2005] Greens claim councillors have betrayed residents as statutory powers are transferred to council officials for Greystones Harbour developmentFollowing the last two meetings of Wicklow County Council at which a majority of councillors supported the setting up of a special company to dispose of land that is part of the proposed Greystones Harbour Development, Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, claims that the people of Greystones have been 'betrayed'.The Green councillor voted against a proposal put before councillors on Wicklow County Council in December, which set up a company called a "Special Purpose Vehicle" to deal with the disposal of land to developers as part of the proposed Greystones Harbour project. Councillor de Burca protested loudly at the proposed membership of the new company, the directors of which included three council officials and two elected councillors. "As far as I am concerned what has happened on Wicklow County Council is unprecedented" says de Burca. "Land disposal is one of the important statutory powers that councillors possess. In voting to set up this company, on which unelected officials are in the majority, the twenty-four councillors on Wicklow County Council have transferred their statuory powers as regards the Greystones Harbour development to a body that will be controlled by the County Manager and his officials. As far as I am concerned this is a case of turkeys voting for Christmas". The Green councillor has been very critical over the years of the way in which councillors have failed to stand up to the County Manager and to senior officials on the council when policies are pushed through which do not have public support. "Councillors do complain and protest about the power of the manager but then they go ahead and give their powers away to a company in which they will be in a minority. You have to really question what is going on". Councillor de Burca claims that the people of Greystones will now be unable to exercise democratic control over the disposal of the land on which the 375 luxury apartments will be built. "Senior council officials tell us that the developers need to know that there will be no delay with disposing of the land to them once the apartments are built and of course that is understandable" says de Burca. "However, there may be issues that need to be sorted out with the developers to the satisfaction of the people of Greystones but the councillors will no longer be in a position to ensure that the democratic wishes of people are observed. They can hope that the council officials will see matters in the same way, but at the end of the day, the council officials have three votes in this comany and the elected members only two. I would feel very let down if I was a resident of Greystones who had voted to have elected councillors represent me. I believe these people have been betrayed".
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