Jack Chambers objected to development of ‘monstrosity’ apartments by Lidl on ‘aesthetic’ grounds

by Pension_Alternative

24 comments

  1. Utter hypocrite! They really have contempt for people. Of course he wasn’t alone in his objections at the time.

    >There were many other objections to the development including by former taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar while he was minister for social protection, then-tanaiste and Labour leader Joan Burton, current Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman who was a councillor at the time, and Ruth Coppinger TD.

  3. In fairness having read the article he seems to have been referring to the entire supermarket development as a “monstrosity” rather than the handful of apartments. I don’t know Castleknock so maybe it was.

    On the other hand, we need to stop referring to suburbs of Dublin as “villages”. You live in a city, go live in the countryside if you want to live in a village.

  4. Fair to say societal attitudes about housing were still a lot different in 2016.

  6. Can we get some independent historians to review all the places marked as an “architectural conservation area”.

    I’d be surprised if the buildings in Castleknock are worthy of any preservation. It is just an excuse to try and keep some areas a bit more posh than others.

  7. That development has been a huge improvement to the area, loads of snobs didn’t want it because you know snobbery, but the place is packed now, I’m sure they shop there now and the buildings around plus apartments look really good.

  8. Cuntbag.

    That particular Lidl is now my local supermarket of choice.

    And no, for those living in Castleknock village itself; Roselawn and Blanch are not viable, walkable alternatives.

    Plus the café there, Melo, is incredibly well visited and loved by the locals.

  9. We are all jack chambers, we are all Tommy Tiernan

    We are the problem

  11. Always had been and always will be a waste of oxygen. Useless, clueless, spineless and clearly doing whoever funds hims bidding. Hasn’t a useful independent thought in his gormless body. A shill and a clown, who’ll fail his way up like a good aul nepo baby.

  12. In fairness his objection was from 10 years ago, when he was still in primary school

  13. I dunno… I mean, a lot of people will change their view on something over an 9 year time period. I’d give benefit of doubt here, housing crisis wasn’t the same animal in 2016 as 2025

  14. I don’t think people objecting to developments which will just add a shitload of extra people with no additional services or upgrades to infrastructure are necessarily bad, depending on the area, but in what universe is

    > a development which would include one of its supermarkets, other shops, a cafe, a medical centre and eight apartments

    a problematic thing in an already well populated location like Castleknock?

  15. One thing I like about the David McWilliams podcast is that he criticises people who object as they are against the common good.

    All these privileged people with social, and financial capital objecting and using their name too.

    Tommy Tiernan objecting to wind farms too was against the common good, we are in the midst of a global climate crisis and he only cares about keeping a view. We need to adapt.

  16. What’s the Planning Application number? Would be useful to read the objection itself.

  17. Ah yes, hypocrisy at its finest.

    Is it me or governments just try to keep the housing crisis going so they can profit in some way or another?

  21. Let’s not forget Castleknock has some deep nimby pockets

  22. Not surprising. File him away with the rest of FFG

  23. That’s the thing about a NIMBY mindset: It comes in shades of grey and everyone always thinks they’re on the very reasonable and sensible end of the scale.

    Chambers will probably say “yeah well look at the traffic, and the construction noise, I’m not like other nimbys”

    Where I live is quite dark, ground floor apartment and has only really one big set of windows out the back looking out into a forested area. Those windows and that peaceful view make the difference between it being a dingy hovel and an apartment with one really nice room. I’ve spoken at length about the need for more housing and a reduction in NIMBY entitlement… but if an 8 story housing complex was to be built blocking my only source of light and looking directly into my previously completely private window?

    I’d probably feel very “reasonable” and “considered” in objecting to it because it would really affect my life (and knock a few hundred grand off the value of the property I struggled for years to afford) but at he end of the day: to anyone who’s not lived in my home I’m just another NIMBY. I think my objection about strangers being able to see into my house 24 hours a day would be ‘more reasonable’ than someone complaining about parking spaces 15 minutes from their house… but for all intents and purposes the outcome is the same.

    Ultimately There’s no completely fair way to fast-track development. We just have to accept at a certain point that there’s winners and losers sometimes when we provide new housing — but the winners gain a lot more than the losers lose.

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