Green Party councillors on Fingal County Council yesterday proposed to amend the North Ballymun Local Area Plan to ensure that the proposed Ikea store does not lead to further traffic chaos on the M50.  
 
The three core proposals put forward by Cllrs David Healy, Joe Corr and Robbie Kelly were as follows:
 
1.    The store should be beside the proposed Metro station on the Ballymun road/
2.    The store should provide for free deliveries.
3.    Parking at the store should be limited and charged for so as to encourage people to come by public transport.

 
All three motions were rejected by the majority of the councillors,
which according to the Green Party will only add to the already
congested motorway.  In addition it means IKEA will be over 1km walk
from the proposed metro and main Quality Bus Corridor on Ballymun Rd. 
This will guarantee that IKEA will, as it does in Britain, act as a
massive traffic generator flooding surrounding areas and the Ballymun
Interchange on the M50 with traffic.  The proposals for parking charges
and free deliveries were already agreed by IKEA in relation to a store
in the UK, which was proposed for Stockport near Manchester but was
refused permission on appeal.
 
Speaking after the decision Green Party Cllr. for Howth, David Healy
said,  “This is exactly the kind of motorway-based shopping development
which increases car-dependency and marginalizes those who don’t own
cars.  It’s not difficult to do it right and link these facilities to
public transport. Unfortunately, what Fingal County Council did today
was to specifically decide to locate this store at a location where you
will have to use a car to get it. The people of Dublin deserve better.”

Cllr Joe Corr added, “I am not convinced that all of the traffic
concerns have been addressed when you consider that we will have the
Port Tunnel traffic passing the Ballymun interchange and the proposal
to expand Dublin Airport with an additional parallel runway and a
second terminal. In addition, the Air and Noise pollution impact on
potential employees was not measured in the Strategic Environmental
Assessment (SEA) and we believe this will be a crucial Health &
Safety concern for people who will eventually work in the area.”