Council Briefs: Settling the route for north Dublin EirGrid cable, calming traffic at Hansfield Wood, and new homes in Mulhuddart

EirGrid honing in on route for north Dublin cable

EirGrid intends to apply to An Bord Pleanála for planning permission for its new North Dublin underground cable in the first quarter of next year, said one of its community liaison officers, Eoghan O’Sullivan.

The East Meath-North Dublin grid upgrade is a new underground cable to run between two existing substations, the Woodland Substation in Meath and the Belcamp Substation in Dublin.

Eirgrid has made some changes to the route for the 38km cable after feedback from community forums, said O’Sullivan, at a meeting of Fingal County Council’s Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Castleknock, Ongar Area Committee on 5 October. They’ve moved the cable off-road around Hollystown to limit disruption, he said.

There are a few spots where the routes are still subject to ongoing engagement with local stakeholders and local landowners, he said.

The proposed route passes through the Pinkeen River, St Margaret’s and Dublin Airport.

The new connection is needed to provide energy to north Dublin in response to the demand created by data centres in the area, and upgrading the existing grid, according to EirGrid’s “Needs Report” from 2017.

It’s part of a broader project in which EirGrid plans to spend around €1 billion to overhaul the underground electricity supply routes in Dublin, replacing ageing cable infrastructure laid in the 1970s and 1980s with a modern network, fit to cope with increased demand and the fluctuations caused by the shift to renewable energy.

Grainne Duffy, a community liaison officer from EirGrid, said that it is early days for the community benefit fund, which comes with the East Meath-North Dublin grid upgrade. But that’ll be more than €2 million, she said.

The money will be released in three phases, Duffy said, and an independent facilitator will manage the distribution. How much each county gets will depend on how much of the cable runs through its area, she said.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Howard Mahony said that the cables would go through a lot of farms, but it will have to cross existing roads at stages. So he was worried about traffic management, he said.

O’Sullivan, of EirGrid, said traffic management has to be agreed with the council. Then, it’s down to EirGrid and ESB to implement that, he said.

One complaint they have had is that traffic-management plans change fast and residents can’t keep up, he said. “We have a community text alert that we set up, and we can text residences a week or two weeks in advance, that there’s going to be alternations and send them on the plans.”

Seeking calmer traffic at Hansfield Wood

“This has been an issue that’s been ongoing,” said Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly, at the 5 October area committee meeting.

She brought up slides showing a square platform that juts out at the edge of one of the roads in the Hansfield Wood estate, in Clonsilla. The traffic-calming measures like this aren’t working there, she said.

They’re causing more problems than they have solved, she says. “I just think these now are absolutely lethal.”

Still, local residents have been on to councillors repeatedly to complain, said independent Councillor Tania Doyle.  “Parking, the amount of traffic, the volume of traffic and cars and vehicles that are entering the estate at a high speed as well.”

Donnelly put forward a motion calling on the council to work with the developer in the estate to address the traffic-management issues.

The council’s written response to Donnelly said the traffic-calming measures now in place had all been built in line with the planning permission.

Martin Byrne, an executive engineer with the council, said the developer would have to apply for planning permission to make any changes to the traffic-calming measures.  “So that’s kind of a long enough process.”

The alternative is to wait for the council to take it in charge and then put in a new traffic scheme at that stage, he said.

A road-safety audit will have to be done before the roads are taken in charge by the council, and the developer would have to fix any issues that arise then, said the council’s written response to Donnelly.

Labour Party Councillor John Walsh said he knew the estate, as he has friends who live there. “The estate is not currently safe.”

He said he would be concerned that if the council took it in charge, they’d just be back there in four or five years trying to find funding to get traffic calming. “We should address it now.”

Donnelly said she had talked to the developer and they were preparing new drawings to submit to Fingal’s roads department in the next couple of weeks. She asked whether the road-safety audit could be done now too.

Bryne said that if the developer was going to put in an application for planning permission, the council would look at that, but it was up to them to put it in. And, they would ask the developer to hurry up the road-safety audit, he said.

At Church Fields in Mulhuddart

Councillors at the 5 October area committee meeting also ran through some of the finer details around the social and affordable homes planned on council land at Church Fields in Mulhuddart, ahead of a vote to dispose of the land to a chosen developer.

Of the planned 300 homes, 40 are to be social, 80 to be cost-rental, and 180 to be affordable-purchase homes.

Aoife Sheridan, a council official in its property section, told councillors the council needs to dispose of land to GEM Construction Ltd so it can build the housing and green infrastructure. The developer would pay €3 million to the council, she said.

Sheridan told councillors that, for the affordable purchase homes, the developer would be making the two-bed homes available to the council for €270,000 and three-bed homes for €320,000.

But that isn’t necessarily the price that the final purchaser will pay, she said, which will  depend on a number of factors. The developer will sell directly to people nominated by the council, she said.

The cost of the social and cost-rental homes was fixed for the duration of the works, she said.

While the cost for the affordable-purchase homes are fixed for the first 18 months after the developer has started works, she said. “And subject to indexation to be agreed thereafter.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly asked what that could mean for prices for the affordable homes. “So could that mean that the prices gone up, before there’s a single resident in any of those units?”

Michael Gallagher, another council quantity surveyor, said there would be houses sold at the price locked in now.

Donnelly also asked how much the affordable rents would be: “What’s the estimated cost-rental price, if you have it?”

Aoife Lawler, a council official in the housing department, said it would be – as the law stipulates – at least 25 percent below the market rent. But didn’t give it in euros and cents.

At Fingal County Council’s October monthly meeting a few days later, councillors agreed the land disposal, moving the project on to its next stage.