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IRELAND’S NATIONAL PLANNING body has delivered a blow to the project seeking to pedestrianise College Green in Dublin city centre.
An Bord Pleanála was scheduled to outline its stance on the plans by 2 November. However, it has delayed its decision and directed that the period of public consultation about the project need to be extended.
Earlier this year, Dublin City Council (DCC) was instructed to provide more details to the planning organisation about the project to restrict the flow of traffic through a section of Dame Street on College Green.
An Bord Pleanála specifically stated that it required more details about the “wider implications” of these plans to ban motor vehicles from the busy road and the effect this would have on traffic in the city as a whole.
This information was supplied by DCC, and An Bord Pleanála has now ruled that interested parties need to be allowed time to review the ”significant additional data”.
The council will be required to advertise the extra information and take on board further submissions from the public.
Transport bodies such as Dublin Bus and the National Transport Authority (NTA) objected to the plan. Local business owners also said they were concerned that the plans could impact trade.
Dublin Chamber, which represents over 1,300 companies, has welcomed An Bord Pleanála’s decision to investigate how a pedestrianised College Green will affect traffic flow throughout the city.
“In principle, the creation of a pedestrian plaza on College Green could be great for the city,” said a spokesman for Dublin Chamber.
“However, a lot of questions remain about how College Green – and other areas of the city centre – will work in practice once the proposed changes are introduced.
Last month, a survey from Dublin Chamber claimed that data released by the NTA to show the success of new traffic measures for Dublin’s quays is at odds with rising commute times across the city.
The NTA claimed that some bus journey times on the quays are up to 45% quicker following the rollout of the bus prioritisation measures in the past few weeks.
Dublin Chamber said the data is at odds with journey times across the capital and highlighted that only 2% of respondents to its survey said there was an improvement in their commute time to and from work since the traffic changes on the quays took effect.
[image alt="original" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/11/original-266-296x245.png" width="296" height="245" title="" class="alignnone" /end]
Background
The plans to pedestrianise College Green were flagged by DCC in October 2016 when it revealed details about the €10 million project.
It was originally intended that the civic space would be in place before the Luas Cross City began operations, which are scheduled to begin later this year.
The new plans for College Green would see the area resurfaced with a granite-paved space and trees lining the area. The council also intended to put in place a central water feature.
Although motor vehicles will be banned from the space, it is intended that bicycle lanes will be installed to facilitate some traffic through College Green.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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So we can pump millions of taxpayers money into numerous consultancy firms to say ‘yes”or ‘no’
@Jeff Nolan: Would you prefer the flip of a coin, and to hell with the consequences?
Why is the main thoroughfares in Dublin cut off for the many Irish citizens and foreign touridys not familar with their way around Dublin. All you see is threatening fines by camers signs for a”public vehicles only streets that have flung up around Dublin 1 & 2 in the last 2-3 years. It’s also not made clear of where are the alternative routes are and what exactly are the rules and then of course the 30KPH zones all over the city and of course the whole country is one giant speed camera zone with being 1Kph over limit being 3 points and a fine while at least Gardai would use common sense and allow reasonable Lee way and so you wouldn’t be uninsurable because of a robot camera.
@Jay Lane: there’s a massive distinction between blocking off for cars and blocking off for people. Drivers have no rights in this country, same goes for bus passengers, pedestrians etc. People have rights. As long as people can access the city centre then there’s no issue.
We can’t seem to do anything in this country without objections or years of delays. The place is a joke.
@Ricky Spanish:
It’s not the objections that’s the problem, every developed country has them, it’s the ridiculous length of time they can take.
@Ricky Spanish: Then leave
It will be a good area for drug dealing and other anti social activity.
St Stephens Green was cleared of such drug dealing activity after a long and sustained campaign but I can see that drug dealing and injecting are now widespread again in St Stephens Green.
Co,edge Green will be colonised by addicts and their suppliers. They have taken over the boardwalks on the Liffey.
This should not go ahead. These areas are great when they are full. However on a wet windy winters day/at night time they become desolate,windswept and unsightly. There is more of a buzz to a city with traffic moving through it. Grafton St/Henry St are fine pedestrianised as there are shops the whole way along. Dame St is banks, pubs and restaurants mainly.
It would be good to design something that allows for through traffic as of today but which can be easily closed off for festivals or events.
We are obsessed with following what every other country in Europe has, but frankly i find some of the huge squares in European cities unsightly and a waste of space!
On top of all of this fix public transport (underground, underground, underground) before making such moves!
@joe: college green is not a “huge square”. To many people, cars are “unsightly” – matter of opinion. Grafton street is pedestrianised and in my 30 years living in Dublin, I’ve never seen it “desolate”, winter, summer, day, night. Ditto for Henry street. Try visiting Amsterdam or Copenhagen where there is actually space to walk, less cars. Not unsightly or desolate.
“Windswept” – does pedestrianisation add more wind? Would love to hear you to explain this, please enlighten us all.
The future is NOT FOSSIL FUELS its public transport. Just because a few days of the year it might be wet doesn’t mean you should have your car in the city center. They should be building the Metro underground like London got in 1863 and has around ~400 km now
@joe: we have no gathering place
@Oisín O’Connor: try comparing the transport infrastrure of Amsterdam and Copenhagen too please , just saying theres space and less cars and its amazeballs ignores the excellent public transports systems they have in both those cities – the problem for Dublin is that the congestion is already at very very high levels around all the ancillary routes and if they decide to re route all the traffic away from what will undoubtedly be a nice plaza – what will the true impact be on the overall movement for the city – thats the hub of the issues and concerns from business / Dublin chamber and people who are not convinced that the DCC are not just diving into another ‘all cars are evil all bikes are good’ initiative. I would prefer they they do proper detailed assessment of the likely impact on how it will actually work in practice – just like they do in Amsterdam and Copenhagen..
There has to give more priority to public transport throughout that area. Once the Luas is up and running the College Green area will become a total accident black spot.
The council management want everyone to either walk or go by bicycle in the city centre …Like people did in the 1940′s….Seems like a great idea….Back to the emergency….
@John003: they have a point. Driving to the city centre should be kept to a minimum. Investing a decent public transport would improve DCC a lot. It’s completely choked with traffic at the moment.
Normally I’d be raging, but this is a big decision with serious ramifications for the future of the city.
The guards can’t police the boardwalk. Can you imagine what that would turn into, best news ever if it doesn’t go ahead. Spend the money on the homeless
@Tony Kennedy: well said. It would not work in Dublin. It would be a magnet for anti social activity.
Would be great if the suburbs both of you live in would open up injection centres to help alleviate some of these issues in the city centre.
DCC management should be made stand for 24 hours in the open spaces we already have and see first hand the anti social behaviour. Liffey Boardwalk, Smithfield Plaza, O’Connell street and old central bank plaza all just a magnet for skangers.
@BAINNE ATHA CLIATH: So what, we should have no public spaces because of a small minority of people?
@Eoin Fitzpatrick: no but if we can’t police the public spaces we already have…
What a backward little country.. It’s obvious this would be great for Dublin. Yahoos who hail from all this parochial little outpost are objecting because it might improve the quality of life in this neglected Capital.
@Michael Fehily: open spaces like this are a magnet for drug dealers and are quickly colonised for drug dealing and anti-social activity.
@Fiona deFreyne: So control it…!!Like most normal countries..
@Michael Fehily: this behavior has not been controlled on the boardwalks on the Liffey, has resumed in St Stephens Green and in other open space area, such as near the Bord Gais Theatre. We don’t have a history of managing these open social spaces.
I would love to see these spaces but they are quickly taken over and become a source of crime.
@Fiona deFreyne: Drug dealing? You’re obsessed with it! Let’s build a park? How frequently are you offered drugs in Dublin as you go about your business?
@Mike Igoe: A few junkies selling benzos around the place I think is what they are referring to. I’ve never been offered drugs on the streets in Dublin. The city is clogged with traffic and cars and this space would be most welcome, it’s horrible as it is at the moment, and there’s not enough room on the footpaths.
@Fiona deFreyne: With the amount of open spaces in Dublin, the amount of drug dealers must be unbelievable, They cover so much ground it is unreal.
Hope they’ll include Anti Terrorist ramming barriers etc . Or Maybe they be true to form and prefer to wait till something happens and then do an expensive retrofit ?
@Randal McNally: drug dealers and their customers would be a more obvious and immediate threat.
@Fiona deFreyne: Can we not plan for all eventualities?
@Dave Murray: how do you know that is not part of the design. I assume that it is, however unlikely it is as an eventuality.
Can we use the money to build something that’s great for the country and not “great for the city”?
@PJ Lehane: This would be Dublin council money. It should be spent on Dublin. This backward little outpost that calls itself a country needs to stop expecting the capital city to fund the whole country. Property tax in Dublin is at least three times bigger than the rest of this pokey little state. Dublin is not obliged to fund other holes around the island.
@PJ Lehane: Why would DCC give the money to the rest of the country?
@Michael Fehily: it’s nice to share
@Dave Murray: to be sound lads
@Michael Fehily: But we do, our DC services get cut, as the money goes to pay for other counties. We need a bigger and strong DFB but instead they are trying to take our Ambulance service away.
Its our city we need to protect from the other counties taking Our money.
@Dave Murray: The property tax goes into a central fund and then paid out. Dublin gets about 33% of what it puts into it. Also the HSE and government owe us millions for the DFB services which is a DCC function. We pay for the hire the machinery in Kerry of the dumb brothers for fixing their roads.
Good. Crazy idea.
I miss the red brick on Grafton St, so I wouldn’t be mad about the white granite they would use, which isn’t like the wicklow granite used in older streets. you can see the difference. The imported stuff is awful.
Not enough seats.
Why don’t they just continually dig up the area like the last 5 years, get planning permission and dig it all up again
This area will turn into another boardwalk, full of petty criminals, junkies and drunks. And like the boardwalk, nothing will be done to stop it.
Anyone for another mass? Ffs
The best thing that can be done for that precinct is to clear out the homeless, junkies and pickpockets so that decent pedestrians can enjoy this area unmolested. Its just a matter
of re-invoking the Vagrancy Act which would empower the police to clean up the place.
I love it when a plan comes together.Where did i hear that before.?
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