Here’s what Fingal County Councillors discussed at their recent monthly meeting.
Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh recently spotted new signs outside the tower at Clongriffin Dart Station, which provides access to the railway hub.
The tower and the lands around it are owned by Richmond Homes, a private developer.
“The developer has put up a sign restricting access on a time-bound basis,” McDonagh said, at Fingal County Council’s monthly meeting on 13 November.
The signs informed locals living east of Clongriffin station that entry was limited to the station’s core opening hours.
Also, the stairs are “for pedestrian access only”, the sign says, prohibiting people from carrying large items, including bicycles and buggies.
This wasn’t a part of the original conditioned access, McDonagh said. “I would ask that we … get that property assessed as to whether the avowal of restrictions or time-bound access is within the planning permission.”
McDonagh’s comments were the latest by councillors to try to resolve years-long issues around access at Clongriffin Dart Station – where the lift is regularly out of order and the stairs are dirty and dangerous.
At the meeting, the council’s chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, acknowledged that this temporary structure isn’t just used by locals to reach the station.
It also provides a throughline between Baldoyle and Clongriffin, she said. “But Irish Rail stations are typically closed overnight.”
Howth-Malahide Area Committee councillors had already recommended that the council’s chief executive seek legal advice on whether Richmond Homes was breaching its planning permission, Green Party Councillor David Healy told his colleagues at the monthly meeting on 13 November.
“We find it deeply concerning that a privately owned piece of infrastructure for the use of the public is being allowed to decay in this manner,” he said.
On 25 October, council representatives, Richmond Homes, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Irish Rail met to talk about access to the station.
An NTA spokesperson said the group at the meeting agreed to appoint consultants to carry out a feasibility study, looking at design options and access solutions.
Ultimately, the objective is to create a new plaza, but that is a long way away, Farrelly said at the monthly council meeting. “It will take quite a long time to complete and is associated with the development of further apartments in the area.”
Richmond Homes needs to maintain this access point to the station and keep it safe, Farrelly said.
“We got that commitment from them, that they would do that, albeit they said there’s quite a lot of challenges in keeping it maintained and working satisfactorily,” she said.
While Fingal County Council should be supporting biodiversity initiatives, like “No Mow May”, it must also make sure that its parks aren’t overwhelmed by weeds, said Sinn Fein Councillor Angela Donnelly at the 13 November meeting.
The council needs to strike a balance between allowing public realms to grow more wildflowers, which are great for biodiversity, and their tidiness, she said.
Herbicides can harm biodiversity but the council also needs to keep weeds and nettles under control, she said, tabling a motion for the council to roll out an environmentally friendly weed-killer programme, similar to Dublin City Council’s.
Dublin City Council has been testing alternatives to cancerous herbicides such as Roundup, using softer means such as hot water and concentrated vinegar.
Fingal County Council’s Biodiversity Plan has called for the reduction and elimination of chemical herbicides, and it has also piloted the use of non-chemical weed solutions, like vinegar and hot steam.
As well, in areas such as in Hartstown Park over the summer, it has promoted wildflower meadows.
But, locals in the Dublin 15 area reported to Donnelly that weeds were infringing on walkways and cycle lanes over the summer, she said.
“The second issue that was causing parents great concern was the prevalence of nettles in public spaces, in particular in Hartstown Park at the agility trail,” she said.
Donnolly suggested scaling back on the extent to which weeds were allowed to grow through the use of mulching, or foam applicators, which mix hot water, sugar and natural vegetable oil.
“To cut costs, maybe we could look at buying equipment with a neighbouring council,” she said. “Apparently 55 days a year is all you would need, and we could use it between two councils.”
Donnelly said she had been in touch with a few Tidy Towns groups in Dublin 15. The consensus was that they didn’t want the public realm overrun with weeds, she said. “But Tidy Towns volunteers can’t be the only answer to the weed removal.”
McDonagh, the Labour councillor, said a complex policy is needed. There is no question around the harm to biodiversity that a classic herbicide like Roundup can cause, he said.
But, the counter-argument is that certain plants like rhododendrons can prove harmful to biodiversity, he said. “I’m also thinking of Japanese knotweed, for which glyphosate is being regarded as one of the most effective ways of being able to actually get rid of it.”
Labour Councillor James Humphreys said that a draft pesticide policy is set to be brought before the council next April. But this will coincide with weed season, he said.
“Is there any chance that this can be brought forward earlier – January, February – before we start getting overwhelmed with weeds again?” he said.
That would be unlikely, said Mary Daly, the council’s director of operations and water.
Fingal County Council’s current policy is the same as every other local authority, she said, and that is to eliminate the use of herbicides in favour of alternatives.
“We will have to allow weeds to grow, unfortunately, and there’s going to have to be more tolerance to the weeds,” she said.
They have been looking at vinegar and foam, she said. “We’ve also started the mechanical brushing techniques.”
There is provision in the council’s budget next year for weed control and buying equipment, she said. “However, their success is very short.”
Since 2021, the council has used hot foam in several locations, a council report said. “It is an extremely expensive process and not viable in all locations countrywide.”
The Operations Department is also trialling a mechanical steel brush machine on kerb sides and in public spaces.
But more sustainable approaches would mean more labour, Daly said. “You can have as many weed picking machines as possible, but you still need people to operate them.”
“And it does mean that you have to do three or four applications with regards to the hot steam and the vinegar,” she said.
Since the north runway at Dublin Airport was opened in August last year, Fingal County Council has issued five letters of warning and an enforcement notice to DAA, the Dublin airport authority.
Those were issued by planners after they got complaints about alleged breaches of the planning conditions for the runway, according to a report presented to councillors by the council’s planning director, Matthew McAleese.
Among the concerns vocalised by councillors at the meeting were alleged breaches relating to the limit on how many passengers can travel through the airport and the number of night-time flights, as well as the adverse impacts caused by aircraft noise in areas around the airport.
Independent Councillor Cathal Boland, who had asked for the council’s report on enforcement procedures, said at the 13 November meeting that he was concerned that DAA was on course to exceed the maximum number of passengers permitted to travel annually through Dublin Airport.
That figure is 32 million passengers, according to conditions in planning permissions for terminals.
Boland criticised the fact that the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had spoken out in early November in favour of lifting this cap.
“The argument which is made to continue to grow the airport is about economic sustainability, but if we have the demand, we have the sustainability,” Boland says.
Boland asked if this position is government policy. “I’d like to know whether his partners in government are also in favour of exceeding the numbers, and endeavouring to influence the debate on the cap.”
This cap is a condition on two separate planning permissions, and two separate warning letters have been issued on this, McAleese said. “That investigation remains ongoing on both of those warning letters.”
Daa intends to submit a planning application before Christmas for significant infrastructure to allow for an increase in the airport’s capacity, he said.
“We have a significant team within the Planning Department and the relevant expertise procured and available to us, to ensure a very robust assessment of that planning application,” he said.
A spokesperson for DAA said on Tuesday that an application to amend the annual cap to 40 million passengers will be submitted to Fingal County Council in December.
Councillor Brian McDonagh of Labour said at the council meeting that the expansion of Dublin Airport will come at the expense of the health of people who live around it.
He pointed to a World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) 2022 report, on environmental noise, which says excessive noise can increase the risk for heart disease, hypertension, sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment.
“We know that the impact on health is not dependent on whether you’re aware of the impact,” McDonagh said. “That can happen in your sleep.”
The WHO’s recommended level of night noise exposure for aircrafts is less than 40 decibels.
According to a report by the Airport Noise Competent Authority, an independent directorate within Fingal County Council, the number of people living near Dublin Airport categorised as highly sleep disturbed decreased by 55 percent in 2022.
But the number of people exposed to late-night noise above 55 decibels was 1,625, compared to 1,423 in 2019.
A condition of the planning permission granted for the north runway in 2007 was that night-time aircraft movements could not exceed 65 flights between 11pm and 7am.
In late July, during the peak summer season, according to DAA, the council issued an enforcement notice for the airport to reduce the number of night flights to the 65 maximum.
Early in August, the DAA secured a court order to pause the council’s enforcement notice.
DAA is proposing to only use the north runway from 6am until midnight, and to introduce a noise quota system rather than a cap on flight numbers, a release from the airport authority said on 8 August.
The conditions, granted in 2007, reflect a situation vastly different from current operations, with modern aircraft dramatically quieter than they were 16 years ago, they said.
Matthew McAleese, in his report at the monthly council meeting, said the DAA’s court challenge to the enforcement notice has been moved to a commercial planning and environment division at the High Court. There’s a provisional hearing date in Q1 of 2024, he said.
Fingal County Council needs to press ahead with court action against DAA before its annual passenger cap is exceeded this year, councillor Boland said at the monthly meeting. “We have an obligation to protect the decisions made by this council.”
A spokesperson for DAA said that Dublin Airport’s operator intends to remain in compliance with the 32 million passenger cap.
“Based on information currently available, DAA anticipates that there is a realistic prospect that unconstrained demand for international travel could approach or even exceed the cap in 2024,” they said.
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