The coastal walkway/cycleway between Baldoyle and Portmarnock which local people have been campaigning for for decades finally seems to be on the way.
Motion 28 at yesterday’s meeting:
Councillor D. Healy
"That the Manager report on progress in relation to the coastal walk/cycleway between Baldoyle and Portmarnock."
The report indicated that the study on the Moyne Road was expected by early summer and the coastal route by the end of the year or before.
At yesterday’s Area Cttee, I raised the issue of progress in the light rail element of the multimodal study which the Council directed in September 2007 be carried out for the North Fringe/South Fringe Area.
My motion: "That the Manager report on progress in relation to the light rail
elements of the transport study for the North Fringe/South Fringe Area."
The officials reported back that they have been in discussions with Dublin City Council and the Railway Procurement Agency, both of which have been positive and cooperative. They are meeting soon to decide how to fund the study and how to approach the selection of consultants. Fingal’s officials will come back with a further report as soon as meeting has been held.
Meanwhile there will be some sort of report to the Area Cttee. meeting on 15th in relation to Roads in the area. I hope there will not be an attempt to go ahead with road planning in the absence of public transport planning!
As I mentioned before, Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus came into our Area Cttee. today. We got some interesting information, but there was definitely no breakthrough on any major issue.
Iarnród Éireann
No progress on either of these. The issue is as set out here.
The only explanation I can come up with is that IE have decided to save
a few euros by having one fewer driver on the evening shift. The
result from the point of view of a resident of Bayside, Baldoyle,
Sutton or Howth is that planning to get a Dart from town in the evening
is a much less attractive option than it was 20 years ago, with waits
of 40 minutes on weekdays and 1 hour on a Sunday.
Nothing.
Talk about new systems. No explanation as to why the existing system
which both DB and IE use at the moment is not used to provide
integrated tickets.
Astonishingly IE appeared not to know what I was talking about. Fortunately, Dublin City Council understands the issue and has put in planning conditions to address it, and Fingal County Council is taking enforcement action as although most of the station is in Fingal’s area, no planning permission has been sought for it.
Dublin Bus
Issue not resolved. This significant traffic hazard remains.
Because only Clontarf Garage (31s) and not Harristown (17A) was represented at the meeting we couldn’t get any update on this.
There are some planned changes to the buses in the area. All are
awaiting approval from the Department of Transport, many for long
periods of time. There is no formal input from Councillors.
The 29A will extend along Grange Rd to a new terminus in Abbey Park.
When this happens, the 32B will no longer go into Abbey Park, but
travel straight through to Portmarnock.
There will be a new route 128 from the area of the new train station
(near Fr. Collins’ Park) to Donaghmede Roundabout, Clare Hall and down
Malahide Rd to Rathmines, 14/15 buses – 10 minutes all day.
The Summary for Policymakers of the report, “Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis”, the first volume of “Climate Change 2007”, will be released on 2nd February. The press conference will be broadcast live on the web.
Extracts from the press release:
"The report assesses the current scientific knowledge of the natural and human
drivers of climate change, observed changes in climate, the ability of
science to attribute changes to different causes, and projections for
future climate change.
"The Report includes significantly advanced observations of the climate
system, presents new projections of future global climate change using
results from 19 climate models, all with improved representations of
physics, chemistry, and spatial resolution. The report also covers the
range of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and other factors that drive
climate change. There will also be a Chapter assessing the
paleoclimatic perspective.
"The WGI report does not cover the impacts of climate change or options
for the mitigation of climate change. These aspects will be covered in
subsequent reports by Working Group II (impacts, adaptation and
vulnerability), and Working Group III (mitigation options) to be
finalised respectively in early April and early May this year In
addition a Synthesis Report covering key findings of all three Working
Groups will be released in late 2007."
The press conference will be broadcast here.
Construction work is starting for the new sewer which will take sewage
from Howth and Sutton to Sutton pumping station. When finished this
will end the discharge of raw sewage from the nose of Howth.
There will be inevitable disruption during construction, but no work will be allowed on Harbour Road during the summer.
Details of the work are available here, including a large pdf map which explains the project.
Some further relevant details are as follows:
Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus are coming to our Area Committee today.
I will be raising the following issues. Unfortunately, unlike most
European countries, control of public transport is completely centralised in Ireland. Local authorities have no power over public
transport, so our influence is limited. I have submitted the following issues to be responded to.
Iarnród Éireann
Dublin Bus
One-hour gaps between Dart trains to Bayside, Sutton and Howth.
In 1984 there were 6 morning peak-hour departures from Howth (at 0800, 0810, 0825, 0836, 0850 and 0900), compared to 3 trains (0759, 0820 and 0845) over the same period today. Malahide has 2 Darts and 1 railcar in the same hour, so there is a net reduction in the total number of Dart trains leaving. There may be a justification that there is a signalling capacity constraint during peak times.
There is no such justification for the lack of evening services:
Sunday evening from City Centre to Howth in 1984 – 10 trains: 2034, 2054, 2119, 2134, 2154, 2214, 2234, 2254, 2314, 2334
Sunday evening from City Centre to Howth in 2007 – 5 trains: 2027, 2110, 2210, 2310, 2350
Maybe the 5 missing Darts are going to Malahide? No, there are only 3 departures to Malahide over this time period: 2040, 2140 and 2240.
This reduction in services was introduced in 2006 and has been repeated in the 2007 timetable despite strong protests from passengers.
The Greens believe public transport must be maintained as a convenient frequent service throughout the day and in the evenings. This decline in the Dart service must be reversed. Trains, trams and buses must be integrated into a single efficient and convenient network. Public transport is a top priority for Greens in Dublin.
I have objected to the proposed redevelopment of the former oil tank site on Evora Crescent, on the grounds that the site is contaminated yet the application contains no information on how it is to be remediated, and that the proposed house is an overdevelopment of the site, out of keeping with the area
Planning Department,
Fingal County Council,
Main St.,
Swords,
Co. Dublin
By hand
Re: F06A/1898
21-Dec-2006
Applicant: McMullan Brothers Limited 3 Custom House Plaza, I.F.S.C., Dublin 1
Location: Maxol Fuel Depot, Evora Crescent, Howth, Dublin 13
Proposed Development: The demolition of the existing tank compound, construction of 1 no. two storey dwelling house with driveway entrance and off-street parking and any ancillary works.
A chairde,
I would like to object to the above development on the following grounds.
1. The drawings submitted with the application are inadequate. It does not adequately show what is on the site already. Nor does it show the relationship of the proposal to nearby houses in Evora Park, Evora Crescent or Grace O’Malley Road.
2. The proposed development involves the excavation of a contaminated site. The site was an oil depot for Evora Park and was the site of an oil spill which also affected neighbouring properties. This contamination remains on site. There is no information in the application on the extent of the existing contamination nor on the methods proposed for remediating the site and removing the existing oil tank and concrete pit in order to construct a house on the site.
3. The proposed development is out of keeping with the area. All surrounding houses have front and back gardens. The proposed house would extend from the front to the back boundaries of the site with minimal garden space to the sides. Visually it would not be in keeping with either the Evora Crescent houses or the Grace O’Malley Road houses.
4. The proposed development would severely damage the residential amenity of the houses in Evora Park to the north of the site. The site is significantly elevated above the rear gardens of the Evora Park houses. The proposal involves a two-storey house at the top of this hill, presenting a tall blank windowless wall to the gardens of these house. There is no set-back in the development site.
5. The proposed development involves access to its car parking space from Grace O’Malley Road in a location where there appears to be insufficient space for the necessary turning movements.
I enclose the €20 fee.
Is mise, le meas,
Cllr. David Healy
I have objected to a planning application in Balgriffin, primarily against the road designs which would place pedestrians and cyclists at risk.
Planning Department,
Fingal County Council,
Main St.,
Swords,
Co. Dublin
By hand
Re: F06A/1918
A chairde,
I would like to object to the above development on the following grounds.
1. The road design proposed does not provide for safe use by cyclists. It seeks to place a cycletrack on the footpath and treat cyclists as pedestrians.
Among the consequences of this design approach at junctions are the following:
a) a cyclist using the cycletrack and going straight on is at risk from vehicles coming from behind, which is a particularly difficult conflict.
b) there is no way for a cyclist to turn right.
These design flaws are evident in the plans at all junctions, including the following:
a) How do cyclists travelling north on the new road and seeking to turn east do so?
b) How do cyclists travelling east to west on Balgriffin Road do so if they use the cycletrack provided?
c) How do cyclists travelling east on the new east-west road turn north onto the new north-south road at the roundabout?
d) How do cyclists travelling east on the new east-west road turn north onto the Malahide Road?
This is of particular importance as under Irish law cyclists have to use a cycle track if one is provided.
2. The design proposes the use of roundabouts without controlled crossing points on all arms.
Due to the geometry of roundabouts and the fact that the pedestrian has no right of way, a pedestrian has to guess the intention of accelerating and decelerating motorists, both on the roundabout and entering it. This is a particularly difficult task and for more vulnerable and less mobile pedestrians it is impossible.
These designs are entirely inappropriate in what will be a high-density neighbourhood with a stated intention of providing for a high level of pedestrian and public transport use.
In fact, the map shows what appears to be a 3lane roundabout, a design which would effectively rule out any safe way for a pedestrian to cross the arms of such a roundabout.
The proposed design would result in a fragmented urban area, with little pedestrian movement across these junctions simply because it would be so dangerous.
3. The proposed design puts the Mayne River through a culvert instead of making a feature of it.
I enclose the €20 fee.
Is mise, le meas,
David Healy
A Joint Policing Committee has been established to give local input into policing in Fingal. I have made some recommendations in relation to the operational programme which is in draft form now. I would be interested in any feedback on this.
Objective 3 of the draft programme is “Advise Fingal County Council & the Garda Siochana and other relevant Agencies on how they might best perform their functions with regard to the need to do everything feasible to improve the safety & quality of life & to prevent crime, disorder & anti-social behaviour within the area.”
However, this objective does not tranfer into the remit of any of the three sub-committees proposed. I would like to recommend that an additional subcommittee be set up.
In addition to working on that general objective, there is the matter of cooperation between law enforcement agencies.
I am conscious of the comment by one of the other members (I can’t remember who) at a previous meeting that Fingal Co.Co. is also a law enforcement agency. There do not seem to be adequate protocols for cooperation between the Council and the Gardaí in relation to enforcement matters which could be handled by either or need to be worked on cooperatively.
Similarly, there is lack of protocols for Fingal to pass on complaints received from the public and vice versa. The areas of waste and road traffic enforcement are good examples of these problems.
Therefore I would like to suggest another sub-committee, which I have drafted up as below in keeping with the format in the draft operational programme. It appears to fit under objective 3, but rather than try to redraft existing sections of the programme, I have drafted as 3A.
Objective
3A. Advise Fingal County Council & the Garda Siochana and other relevant Agencies on how they might best perform their functions with regard to the need to do everything feasible to improve the safety & quality of life & to prevent crime, disorder & anti-social behaviour within the area.
Actions
3A.1 Establish an Enforcement subcommittee to consider the operation of policing and law enforcement in Fingal (including response rates and times)
3A.2 Recommend protocols for contact and passing on of information, complaints etc. between the agencies with responsibility for law enforcement and/or which receive relevant complaints and information from the public. (Garda Síochána, Fingal County Council, EPA, marine agencies)
3A.3 Draft strategic reports to support senior Gardai & FCC decision making.
3A.4 Present reports by Garda at full JPC meetings.
3A.5 Present reports by relevant FCC representatives at full JPC meetings.
3A.6 Include map-based spatial analysis in reports.
Terms of reference & work plan drawn up.
Some smaller points:
Under Objective 1 (Keep under review the levels & patterns of crime, disorder & anti-social behaviour in Fingal (including the patterns & levels of misuse of alcohol & drugs)), I suggest adding two further actions
* Include map-based spatial analysis in reports.
* Enable controlled access to databases for the purposes of investigating patterns of crime.