Council Briefs: Failure to build Traveller housing, closing another laneway, and scrapping the Bull Island discovery centre

Councillors defer plan for Traveller housing

At Monday’s meeting, councillors asked that Dublin City Council defer approval of the next five-year plan for Traveller accommodation.

Local Traveller organisations had asked for that, councillors said, so that they have time to review the final draft – and to meet with council CEO Richard Shakespeare.

On the phone on Tuesday, Shay L’Estrange, coordinator at Ballyfermot Traveller Action Project, said that the Traveller organisations are asking the CEO to take charge of the delivery of Traveller accommodation himself.

At the meeting, some councillors hit out at the council’s failure to deliver new accommodation over the last five-year plan.

The delivery of new Traveller-specific accommodation was painfully slow, said independent Councillor John Lyons, “to the point of non-existence”.

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin said that more Travellers are taking up offers of settled accommodation because the council isn’t building any new Traveller accommodation in the city.

“The last programme didn’t have any new housing in it and the one before it didn’t,” she said. “I’m very doubtful if the new one will.”

The new plan commits to building new homes in some existing Traveller sites but fails to identify any new locations for Traveller accommodation.

De Nortúin said that Traveller accommodation is being pushed out to the edge of the city. “This report to me is the eradication of Traveller accommodation in our city.”

She wants a special meeting to discuss it, she said.

Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham said that the report follows years of missed targets. “Traveller representatives are naturally sceptical that this programme will be any different.”

He called on the council CEO Richard Shakespeare to meet with Traveller organisations, as they have requested.

Mick Mulhern, the council’s housing manager, said that the report needed to be agreed by the end of the year, so he didn’t object to deferring that until the next meeting.

He and Shakespeare would meet representatives of Traveller organisations in November, he said. “More than happy to meet.”

On the phone on Tuesday, L’Estrange, coordinator at Ballyfermot Traveller Action Project, said that for years, there have been recommendations for how to speed up delivery of housing for Travellers.

An expert review has recommended each council set up a strategic policy committee especially for Traveller accommodation.

But that will take years to develop if it comes through, says L’Estrange, because new national legislation is needed.

In the meantime, Traveller organisations in Dublin want the CEO to oversee delivery, he said.

Drop the Bull Island centre and reroute the money?

Dublin City Council should drop its plan to spend  €12m to build a discovery centre on Bull Island and reroute the money to community facilities for the wider area, said

independent Councillor John Lyons.

Lyons said he was surprised to find that a two-year progress report of the city development plan, which runs from 2022 to 2028, still includes a plan for a discovery centre on Bull Island.

“If it was to come to fruition and be realised as a project it would be such a squandering of public money on an obscene level,” said Lyons.

The discovery centre is like the proposed whitewater rafting facility, said Lyons. “Nobody looked for it, nobody asked for it and nobody is supporting it.”

The council has been pushing a plan to build an interpretive centre for Dublin Bay, on the island, which it says would “illustrate and interpret the natural, cultural and built heritage of the North Bull Island Nature Reserve and Dublin Bay.”

The council said earlier this year that the project would cost around €18.7m in total and it hoped to complete it in 2027.

Some conservationists flagged concerns about bringing additional people onto the nature reserve though and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage raised doubts about the viability of the project.

Now Lyons says the money should be re-directed. Nearby in Coolock, there is a severe shortage of community facilities, said Lyons. “We are crying out for cultural spaces and places where people can come together. I think we are deserving of some investment.”

The €12m set aside for the Bull Island centre should be redirected to create an arts and cultural venue for the North Central Area, which doesn’t have any such facility, he said.

Said Richard Shakespeare, the council CEO: “We are in the process of renewing the capital programme and your points are noted.”

Councillors finalise closure of Glasnevin laneway

Councillors voted to close a laneway off Glasnevin Avenue due to anti-social behaviour on Monday night, despite divisions in the local community, and concerns that such requests would snowball.

They were reluctant, councillors said. But did so after a report that said that this was the wish of the majority of locals living on and near the laneway that runs from Glasnevin Avenue to Beneavin Park.

Mick Mulhern, the new council housing manager, said the council ran a consultation and knocked on 117 doors. Of those that offered an opinion, most were in favour of the closure, he said.

Five emergency reports related to the laneway had been logged by Gardaí in the last four years, but local Gardaí had confirmed that there were other complaints too, said Mulhern.

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy said that the local community is divided. Many people don’t want the lane closed and the consultation process wasn’t broad enough, he said.

“It is in complete conflict with the development plan and our commitment to increase permeability of urban space,” he said.

But most local councillors spoke in favour of the closure.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Keith Connolly said that 47 people, including those living on the laneway, petitioned the council to extinguish the right of way earlier this year. “Eighty percent of people are in favour of closing this,” said Connolly, who lives nearby.

There is a turn in the laneway which allows people to hide anti-social behaviour and drug dealing,  he said.

Green Party councillors spoke against closing laneways, which they pointed out goes against the commitment in the city development plan.

Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose said that there are several other similar laneways off Glasnevin Avenue. Together, they are important for the walkability of the area, he said.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Racheal Batten said that the council’s policy seems to be to close laneways before it tries anything else.

She has been asking the council to paint and install better lighting on a different laneway in her area for six years, she said. “Essentially by closing this lane, we are admitting that we are not able to secure it.”

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn said that, “The next time we give someone the freedom of the city of Dublin, we are going to have to give them an angle grinder, as well, in order to get through the city. We are closing off that many laneways.”

Fine Gael Councillor Patrick Kinsella, who represents Kimmage-Rathmines, said he has been approached by three separate groups of residents who want lanes closed, in the few months since he was elected in June.

Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham said that despite all the talk about closing laneways as a last resort, the council hadn’t evidenced that it had tried anything else at this location.

The number of emergency callouts in recent years was low too, he said.

“If we set the bar this low for closing a right of way we are going to be inundated with requests to close lanes all across the city,” he said.

Dublin City Council has recently moved to close routes at Swan Alley, Harbour Court, Hardwicke Street, Ormond Place, and St Catherine’s Lane.