Calls for historic cottages to be preserved by council
By Aimee Walsh
THERE are calls for two historic cottages on Old Bawn Road in Tallaght to be preserved as there are claims they are being used by youths to engage in anti-social behaviour.
The two cottages, which are currently vacant and located on Old Bawn Road and are being frequently used by youths for drinking, according to local councillors.
Calls have been made to preserve these two cottages on Old Bawn Road
Speaking to The Echo about the anti-social behaviour taking place at the cottages, councillor Teresa Costello for Tallaght Central said: “Maelruans Park is an estate full of elderly people and it is just so unfair to have buildings like that that have been let go into disrepair and are now a place for anti-social behaviour.
“I was walking by and I looked in there and there is graffiti on the walls and the grass is overgrown – it just looks terrible.”
As reported in The Echo last year, the plot of development land containing the two cottages went on the market in May 2020 with vacant possession with a guide price of €500,000, on a site area extending to approximately 0.16 hectares.
Cllr Costello said that it is feared that the historic cottages would be demolished in the future as they have been left to go into a state of “disrepair”.
She said: “They have been vacant a good while. My fear is that they would get demolished and something else would go up there. There are very few of them that are around the county and they need to be preserved.”
In June last year, a petition calling on South Dublin County Council to purchase the two historical cottages in an attempt to preserve and develop them as a heritage centre and tea-rooms gained over 600 signatures.
Cllr Costello had a motion down for the County Development Plan Meeting, to “create a new Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) to the South to include Goose Park & TJ Burns cottages on the Old Bawn Road”.
With support from the majority of councillors, the motion passed and will now be included in the draft County Development Plan before going to public consultation stage.
“I have been on about this for a long time, and I thought the County Development Plan was the perfect opportunity to actually action and to get a motion passed for them to be included and assessed to be added to an ACA.
“People have been trespassing on them and the ACA wasn’t even about the anti-social behaviour going on, it was about protecting them because they are so old.
“We need to protect these houses because they are part of Tallaght’s heritage and what Tallaght was,” cllr Costello concluded.
