A new council sports forum looks to press schools and such to share their facilities
Amid a serious shortage of pitches in Dublin 8, the OPW only allows one soccer club to use its pitch at the War Memorial Gardens.
Amid a serious shortage of pitches in Dublin 8, the OPW only allows one soccer club to use its pitch at the War Memorial Gardens.
In 2019, the council abandoned a previous planning permission application amid similar tensions between Georgian restoration, and sports uses.
“We have waited too long; we desperately need the department to fund this,” says Shay L’Estrange, coordinator with Ballyfermot Traveller Action Project.
Is the issue paperwork? Attention and will? Money? The department?
New gambling advertising rules are set to come into effect very soon, and are likely to curb on-street advertising.
"Digital screens are impacting on our environment,” says independent Councillor Mannix Flynn. “It’s another erosion of the public domain.”
Fierce debate over the rate of social housing rents dominated the meeting, while funding for changes in the city centre, and spending on homeless services, also featured.
“That is really, I think, what Nirvana is for the future,” says Fiona O’Driscoll, of the Irish Council for Social Housing. “It's the dream.”
“I think in some cases it could be more than half their income. I don’t see how the sums will add up.”
There is €3.25 million set aside in the council’s capital budget to restore the park – and the new layout will also facilitate ongoing sports uses, say officials.
But Mick Mulhern, the council’s housing manager, says it just isn’t always possible or practical to do that.
“It started out as a football project and it's turned into a game changer for the area and surrounding areas,” says John Hayden, the chairman of Belvedere Football Club.