I made this submission today to the 4th (!) planning application on the Techrete site, under the Strategic Housing Development process which reduces effective public participation.
I made this submission to the second “Strategic Housing Development” application for the Baily Court / Edros site on 9th December.
Fingal County Councillors yesterday agreed to amend the County’s Budget to provide funding for three particular areas:
Climate action.
Many of the actions in the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan are marked as “awaiting budget.” These include important measures to reduce emissions and to tackle the impact of climate change including flooding and coastal erosion. The Council decided to allocate a further €320,000 towards these unfunded actions.
Parking enforcement aimed at improving the safety of vulnerable road users.
Continue readingThe Area Committee yesterday approved a revised School Street proposal for St. Oliver Plunkett’s Malahide. The pedestrianisation of the section of road outside the school at arriving and leaving times is happening as proposed but there’s no longer a full time one way system, just a ban on turns from the Mall onto the rise during school arriving and leaving times. The full report on the public consultation including the revised proposal is here.
Continue readingI was invited to speak at the IPI’s conference last week. The rough notes for my speech are below and the powerpoint I used is here.
Contents (slide 2)
Fingal County Council is proposing the pedestrianisation of a section of Grove Road, from Church Road to The Rise, for school drop off and collection times. ( 08.30hrs – 09.15hrs and 13.00hrs – 14.45hrs weekdays, during school term times. ) This would be an 18 month trial to improve safety for schoolchildren arriving at and leaving school
There will be a public information meeting on Tuesday 8th October at 7.30pm in Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links.
Further information in this leaflet and at https://consult.fingal.ie/en/consultation/traffic-scheme-grove-road-and-rise-malahide-co-dublin
At the monthly Council meeting on Monday 13th May, I succeeded in having greenway links from Kinsealy a) to Portmarnock, b) to Kettle’s Lane and c) to Balgriffin/Belmayne included in the Kinsealy Local Area Plan.
Importantly, my motion on phasing resulted in a decision that the greenway from Kinsealy to Old Portmarnock/R124 (which will give access to Portmarnock railway station) be included with a timeframe of including it in the 2020 Capital Programme and submitting the planning application for it in 2021. Continue reading
Having received the Chief Executive’s report on the public consultation on the draft LAP, I am not happy with the lack of progress on connecting Kinsealy to neighbouring areas especially to Portmarnock railway station and I’m proposing the following four amendments to the Plan:
Motion 1
That in response to recommendations received, including from the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government, the LAP be amended to include the following in section 11:
The full segregated cycle and pedestrian link to Old Portmarnock/ R124 to provide access to Portmarnock train station shall be provided as part of the first phase of further development under the Kinsealy Local Area Plan.
In May 2015 I proposed this motion:
“That the Chief Executive and Council remove all obstacles on the Coastal cycle route from Sutton to the Kilbarrack Road and bring forward a senstive design for providing lighting to the shadowed area of the cycle track and to remove the hazard posed by steps which cut into the track.”
Since then I have heard of collisions on the route due in particular to the lighting problem. Last month, April 2017, i raised the issue again:
Councillor D. Healy – Kilbarrack to Sutton Cycle Route. AI036623
“That the Chief Executive report on progress in relation to addressing the design flaws in the cycle route from Kilbarrack Road to Sutton including lighting, obstacles and steps as discussed at this Committee in May 2015 and October 2016.”
Report:
The cycletrack is due to be widened in the coming months by altering the lining. The bins will be moved out of the cycletrack and on to the footpath. The lining will be designed around the larger poles and the steps to guide bicycles around them.
Minute:
Following discussion Mr. Stephen Peppard, Senior Executive Officer agreed to have the potential issues around the lighting examined by the Public Lighting Section and that further discussions would take place with the Traffic Engineers regarding the steps.
If you have direct or indirect experience of the difficulties caused by the current design, please let me know.