Councillors reject Greens' call for fair rent for seafront in Town's 2008 Budget

The Green Party councillors say that the use of Bray Esplanade for amusements every summer as part of the St. Patrick's Day Festival and the Bray Summerfest is an opportunity for Bray Town Council to raise some badly-needed revenue for the town which could be spent on community projects, sports and recreational facilities for young people. They point out that Bray Seafront is a very valuable commercial space and that any company operating amusements on the seafront for the three weeks of the Festivals is likely to make quite significant profits.

“In our opinion the Town Council needs to start treating Bray seafront as the very valuable public asset that it is” said Green Councillor, Caroline Burrell. “It is crazy that we have handed this public asset over to a private operator during both Festivals over the past few years to do very good business without some expectation that a small percentage of the profits raised would come back to the town and benefit the people. This year the local business traders will receive a total of €60,000 from the Council to help towards the running of two Festivals, Christmas Lights and for Tourism Promotion. It is common practice in other towns for the business community to fund and run these events themselves. We don't even receive Audited Accounts for the funding that the Council gives despite our requests for it. Other groups who receive similar funding give Audited Accounts every year that clearly shows where the monies are spent which makes for a clear and transparent system, this does not appear to be the case in regard to this group. Maybe some Councillors are happy to see Bray remaining a cash-starved town but the Green Party Councillors are not, here is a clear way we could raise money to spend on public facilities such as more Playgrounds and a Skateboard Park for the people of the town.”

Green Councillor, Ciaran O'Brien says that it is established practice in other local authority areas to look for a fair rent for the use of public space or public assets. “For example in our neighbouring local authority - Dunlaoghaire Rathdown County Council – a charge of 1,500 euros per day is paid to the council for the use of Kilgobbet Park for a fun-fair” says Cllr O'Brien. “Kilgobbet Park is not half as valuable a location as Bray Seafront. It seems crazy that Bray Town Council has not to date put the use of the seafront during the Festivals out to tender, or looked for a fair rent for its use over the period. The Green Party is suggesting that the council becomes a little more business-like in the way it manages its assets on behalf of the public.”

Green Councillor, Steve Matthews, says that Bray Town Council has been quite generous to the organisers of the St Patrick Day’s Festival and the Bray Summerfest over the past few years. “As Councillors we very much appreciate how important these events are for the town and we see them provide a lot of enjoyment for the people of the town” he says. “However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that the same commercial operator who used the seafront rent-free for his amusements this summer pays 10,000 euros a day to the RDS in commercial rent for the same. Bray Town Council needs to manage the use of the seafront for commercial purposes in a way that channels some of the benefits back to community groups who are very badly in need of funding”.

For further information please contact:
Caroline Burrell on 086-314 0453; email: burrell@wicklowgreens.org