Council Briefs: Long-awaited regeneration of Croke Villas, campaign to save number 11 bus, expansion of Drumcondra library

Building Croke Villas

Dublin City Council plans to build 52 new social homes, together with a cultural or community space, in a long-awaited redevelopment of the Croke Villas social housing complex.

The council presented the latest plans for the homes at the back of Croke Park near the National Handball Alley to councillors on the Central Area Committee on Tuesday,

It intends to start building in early 2026 and complete the homes in 2027, said a report.

Walking councillors through the designs, Paul Lennon of Coady Architects said that the two apartment buildings of four and five storeys are arranged in an L shape around a courtyard.

The apartments are all dual-aspect with private balconies and one-third of them are universal design, he said. Five of the homes are one-bedroom apartments and 47 are two-bedroom apartments.

The council has scrapped plans for basement parking and will provide four car-parking spaces, as well as bicycle parking, said Lennon.

The plans include a new boulevard. Coady Architects has talked with council departments about the public realm from Ballybough Road towards Croke Park, said Lennon. “Leading to a significant increase in greening, trees, soft landscaping in that area.”

Councillors were mostly glad to see some movement on the site. “A welcome development after 20 years,” said independent Councillor Christy Burke.

Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll asked if the cultural and community space could be co-designed in advance with those who will use it.

Glen Murray, a senior executive structural engineer at Dublin City Council, said they are engaging with the arts department within the council.

“This is a great day,” said Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam. “It’s going to utterly transform Ballybough and the North Strand.”

He also asked how much it would cost. Murray said that they cannot reveal that.

Number 11 Bus

At Tuesday’s meeting of councillors for the Central Area, Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll tabled a motion in support of a local campaign that has been building to keep the number 11 bus.

The bus route runs from Wadelai Park on the north side to the Sandyford Business District on the south side, including through Drumcondra.

It is set to be replaced under Bus Connects, the revamp of the city’s bus network. But some locals have flagged concerns that the new number 19 won’t be the same, as it terminates in Parnell Square, and is not a cross-city service.

According to a recent Dáil debate on the issue, it is proposed that people would then transfer to other public transport links, to continue their journey across the city.

Minister for State at the Department of Transport, Fianna Fáil TD James Lawless said:  “Although route 19 will not extend past Parnell Square, passengers can interchange with other bus services at nearby stops and with the Luas at Parnell Street and Dominick Street.”

Changing buses is not easy for some commuters including older people or those with disabilities, said O’Driscoll at the meeting.

“Public Transport is a vital part of daily commutes and the expected loss of the no.11 cross city is causing anxiety and fear for people with disabilities and mobility challenges needed to cross the city,” says O’Driscoll in her motion.

Most councillors backed the motion.

Fine Gael Councillor Gayle Ralph spoke in support of it. She asked that the committee write to the National Transport Authority to ask it to engage with residents’ associations.

It should not remove the number 11 until Bus Connects is fully up and running and providing a similar service that people can use to cross the city, she said.

Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose said he would like to see the number 19 route extended.

When it was first published, the new bus was only going once per hour, but the NTA has agreed to increase that to every 20 minutes or every 10 minutes at peak hours, said Jose.

“A lot of work has been done on this, I think if we could extend it it would be perfect,” he says. The new bus route will link Drumcondra to the airport for the first time, he said.

“There has been a lot of anxiety caused by this but there has been a lot of misinformation as well,” said Jose.

Some people believed that there was going to be no bus at all serving Home Farm Road, he said. But there is.

Sinn Féin Councillor Séamas McGrattan backed the motion and asked if the Central Area Committee could invite the NTA to an upcoming meeting to clarify plans for BusConnects for the area.

Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam said that the NTA should postpone the changes to bus routes until the new year, to improve communication with residents.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner, who chairs the committee, said that public representatives also have a responsibility.

“There is a lot of fear and anxiety over this but a lot of that is because of information put out by public representatives that the buses are going to be removed completely which isn’t the case,” said Horner.

Although the number 11 bus will be removed, the replacement number 19 will start further north, at the airport, and then follow the number 11 route from Wadelai down to Parnell Square. Users will have to change there, but they’ll have lots of options for continuing south.

The NTA needs to provide public representatives with the information as well so they can communicate that to residents too, she said.

Adding to Drumcondra Library?

Councillors also backed a motion from Fine Gael Councillor Gayle Ralph, calling on officials to do a feasibility study looking at building a conference room as an extension to the Drumcondra library.

The motion commended the staff of the library. “It’s a brilliant community resource in the area, we don’t have a community centre,” said Ralph at the meeting.

Community groups in Drumcondra often hold meetings and events in the Skylon Hotel, she says, because of the lack of space.

The library is small and “would greatly benefit from an extension to the rear to facilitate the building of a conference room where community talks, displays and other events could take place,” she said.