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COUNCILLORS IN SOUTH Dublin have voted to block approval for four advertising billboards that are part of the Dublin Bikes deal with an advertising company.
The decision was made despite councillors being told that a failure to meet contractual obligations could mean increased costs for users of the scheme.
Coca-Cola Zero Dublin Bikes is operated by Dublin City Council and JC Decaux.
As part of the original funding deal with the advertiser in 2009, the council provided the company with 72 advertising positions around the city.
When the scheme was expanded in 2010 to increase the number of bikes and bike stations, further commitments were made to allow 10 more advertising ‘Metropoles’.
Four have yet to be delivered in the city.
These Metropoles are double-sided advertising structures that are 5.47m high and 3.48m wide.
At a meeting of the South East Area Committee of Dublin City Council yesterday, councillors were told that a failure to deliver the Metropoles could mean a scaling back of the scheme by eight stations.
It could also mean that the cost of the service to users could increase from the current level of €20 per year to €35 per year.
Last year, the scheme operated at a loss of €376,211 that was borne by the council.
The proposed four sites for the Metropoles were at Donnybrook Road, Shelbourne Road and Pembroke Road in Dublin 4 and Charlemont Street in Dublin 2.
The motion opposing the plans was submitted by Sinn Féin councillor Chris Andrews before it was passed.
Speaking this morning on Newstalk Breakfast, Labour councillor Dermot Lacey said councillors were opposed to the hoardings because they were “simply poor locations”:
We took the decision yesterday to say that four proposed advertising boards were unsuitable, unsuitable for the area. And we stand over that, and any question of ‘not in my backyard’ isn’t borne out by the facts.
He also said that it was wrong of city officials to say that the price of the scheme could increase if the Metropoles were not given the go-ahead.
“It was wrong of the city officials to include in a planning assessment that if you don’t proceed with this we are going to increase the price to Dublin Bikes users,” he said.
Lacey added that he would be happy to suggest other locations in his constituency.
North-south divide
In the documents provided to councillors, Dublin City Council pointed out that the South East Area had 47% of the bike stations but only 25% of the advertising units.
On the whole, the north side of Dublin City had 59% of the advertising hoardings but only 35% of the bike stations.
Green Party councillors also voted against the proposed ads with party leader Eamon Ryan TD defending their decision this morning.
He said their vote was a “protest vote”.
“As long as all the budgets for cycle modes are being cut, then we think our councillors were absolutely right,” he said.
“So I’m sorry, we need to stop this here and now and put proper funding in place for cycling in our city. It’s not by putting just a couple of big massive adverts around the place.”
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Having listened to Dermot this morning on newstalk he quite literally came across as snobby. He had no legitimate reasons for pushing against the stations in the south side. And each reason he cited was more ridiculous than the last. It was ridiculous, this service takes a huge amount of car uses off the roads it doesn’t need to make money it should have some subvention. Its a service for the city in all senses.
He is a snob. It’s blatant snobbery. You just have to look at the proposed sites in question. Absolute hypocrites. All tree hugging and eco warrior until you ask then to make a small cosmetic sacrifice. Whip the bike stations away from those areas and that will get their attention.
He’s the guy that accused water protesters of being violent thugs a while back. He’s bad news altogether.
Lacey is a bad egg alright, and i would suggest he would block this if jcd wouldn’t pay for his regular teeth whitening, but there has to be a point where you go from subsidising to prostituting your city and sticking jumbo boards up to allow a token subsidisation of a scheme which should ideally by completely run by the council, and any advertising sold directly at annual costs to advertising agencies.
Absolute bullshite by a lot of you here. I don’t have much time for Dermot – but on this one I agree. I live in Donnybrook, work the streets as a TidyTowns’der and yes – objected to this proposed advertisement junket on our Village streets. Lets not forget – and I mean this everywhere – advertisement hording is pure capitalist clutter. We have suggested alternative sites for this hording in return of bike stands in the Village – but no no no – thats not acceptable. Sorry no more bike stands till you cave into our demands. Pressurise the public to agree and give in to there demands in “their prime location” and you’ll get bike stands at the current rate. They pack up and gone attitude, leave you with advertising clutter – lets move elsewhere to destroy heritage towns further. Come on – it’s not snobbery its about protecting what you have and not letting the Market’eers win. Dublin is unique, beautiful and has an abundance of great villages and communities, lets not destroy that so that the marketeers can make a few bob for their clients with a false dangling carrot and a mess behind afterwards. Rant over.
The Greens voting against ads promoting bikes? If it was raining soup, those dopes would hand out forks.
A pile of these signs have been placed in the south west inner city despite very few to no stations in the area. All to pay for the yuppies in D4. It should not be funded by placement of these eyesores. But since it is, D4 should take its share of these Yokes. For the paltry amount of money the scheme costs the state should fund it entirely. 30 million euro was spent for the British Queen to be facilitated for 5 days. The state has the money when it wants to have it.
Something’s needed to cover up the shite that is the north inner city.
Yeah you’re right there’s loads of Metropoles along by the Luas on the Naas road. Some in Ballyfermot too. The nearest bike station is about 3km away. Let the people of West Dublin put up with the signs and people in nice areas can have virtually free bikes. Sounds like a great deal for the nice areas. Kilmainham Jail is as far South West as they go.
Ah come on .. on my way home, I walk by three of these billboard things. I walk home because there is not a single bike stand in the south east of the city, D4 take your share and let me have a bike stand at the Coombe!
You mean south west. The coombe is sw.
Ahhh Niw – There’s enough Bikes in D4. They’ve a great saddle & they’re a great ride.
Shouldn’t it be be more like one of the metropoles right beside one of these bike stations?
In 2006 JcDecaux applied for an illuminated metropole beside my home of 4.85m X 3.48 m. Dublin City Council overruled my and the residents association’s objections. Thankfully An Bord Pleanala rejected it. There are no bikes for rent in Dublin 5, but we were part of the deal. I wouldn’t wish these signs on any community and applaud the council for their decision.
The Northside has a lot of the advertisements but the Southside has most of the stations. Go figure
They’re handy for sheltering under while you wait for a lift in the rain.
Remove 8 bike stations from the southside. Simples!
They wouldn’t notice just four more on the northside.
Sure they’d be destroyed in a month!
You must confine your outdoor activities to Shrewsbury Road if you think they’d be any safer on the south side bud.
Yeah – they’d all be pregnant.
FFS any modern city will find ways of finding solutions to this – we need bikes – lots of them.
And there plentiful on the South-Side.
Interesting to see Sinn Fein, Labour and the Greens and a lot of people want to pay higher taxes or cut other council services to fund dublin bikes. That is of course the consequence of higher state funding and less advertising. Although oddly I imagine their tune would change if taxes were to raise or other services were to be cut.
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