Local councillors push to close another route in the north inner-city due to anti-social behaviour

On a recent Monday, a discarded pink tent blows across the road on Ormond Place, a narrow road that runs along the backs of the buildings on Ormond Quay, near the Four Courts.

Metal railings run along the top of the wall at the back of the houses on Ormond Square and from inside the back yards of some houses, there are tarpaulins hanging from the railing.

The grey wall has graffiti drawings and a painting of a young man with angel wings.

Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Boylan says that local residents have been complaining about anti-social behaviour and drug use on Ormond Place for at least 10 years. Cars nearby have also been vandalised, she says.

Residents recently met with public representatives and Gardaí, she says. “Residents were adamant that there needs to be something done about the laneway.”

Last week, at a meeting of councillors for the Central Area, Boylan proposed that the council close the road to the public, and councillors agreed to start the process.

Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam said that the council should move fast to formally close the road at the next full council meeting in early May.

If it goes ahead it will be the third thoroughfare in the north inner city that councillors have opted to close so far in 2024.

Road closed

In January, Dublin city councillors agreed to extinguish the public right of way and close Harbour Court, a lane that runs from Abbey Street to the Quays.

That was based on a decision by the Central Area Committee last July. Although, in February, some councillors who had voted to close Harbour Court – including Boylan – asked council managers to re-open it and to find alternatives to re-imagine the space.

At the time, council senior executive officer Frank Lambe said: “The decision was made to extinguish the public right of way. That decision was made and still stands.”

But the council hadn’t got around to shutting it off yet. There’s no gate, people still regularly walk through it. Dublin City Council didn’t respond before publication to a query sent Thursday as to whether that closure is still going ahead.

Also in February, the council began to close off the end of Hardwicke Street to cars, allowing access still for pedestrians and cyclists.

At a meeting of the Central Area Committee on 9 April, Boylan tabled a motion calling on the council to restrict access to Ormond Place, currently a public road, to residents and businesses only.

The council should install a gate to which residents and businesses would have a key or a fob, she says.

Boylan says local residents have been asking Gardaí and the council to address the issues on Ormond Place at least since she was elected 10 years ago.

“It’s not like the residents haven’t asked for a different approach before now,” she says, by phone on Tuesday.

Councillors in the Central Area are closing thoroughfares more regularly at the moment, she said. “It is like a trend and it’s an unfortunate trend. It is done very reluctantly.”

But she cannot get assurances from Gardaí that they will police the area sufficiently, even though the Bridewell Garda Station is around the corner, she says. “We haven’t got the Garda resources that we need in the north inner-city.”

Councillors would still welcome an alternative plan for the area, she says. Closing roads is a last resort, she says.

At the meeting Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam and independent Councillor Christy Burke also proposed an emergency motion calling on the council to close Ormond Place.

McAdam said that 57 residents signed a petition asking the council to close the road due to drug use and anti-social behaviour.

He received confirmation that it is a road, not a laneway, and he asked if officials from the roads department could get back to him in the next couple of weeks with any issues as he wants the full council to begin the process to close the road at its next meeting.

“What we are hoping to do is to seek to initiate the formal procedures at our main meeting,” said McAdam.

Labour Councillor Declan Meenagh asked whether the issues had been referred to the Local Community Safety Partnership, and what its response was.

The partnership is a forum which aims to make the north inner city safer. It includes the Gardaí, managers from Dublin City Council, Tusla, the HSE, the Probation Service, and the local drugs task force.

There are representatives too from the community and voluntary sector, youth and education sectors, business representatives and residents’ representatives.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner asked council officials to engage with the local residents.

“People would be open if they had a commitment from the council to address the issues as they arise,” she said. “It is incumbent on us as a council to show that it is possible to address the issues rather than closing down public space.”

Independent Councillor Nial Ring suggested that the council install CCTV on the road. If that doesn’t work, he would support closing it, he says.

The council will commit to improve cleaning at Ormond Place, says the official response to Boylan’s motion.

“A proposal to extinguish a public right of way must consider where the road is of public utility i.e. is of use to the general public for access etc,” it says.

Councillors would ultimately decide whether or not to close the road through a vote at their full monthly council meeting.

Other options

Former council planner Kieran Rose says the council has lost the plot. “It’s crazy,” he says. “If we do this we are giving up on the city.”

Instead, the council should improve the laneways, using painting, lighting and CCTV, he says, and the Gardaí should police the area.

Dublin City Council says that it is committed to increasing permeability, he says, and it requests developers to include new pedestrian routes in their plans. “It’s bizarre and terrible that the council is closing off pedestrian routes in the city.”

The council is more likely to abandon lanes in disadvantaged areas, he says.

In the early 2000s, he campaigned within the council against a proposal to close Mill Lane off Newmarket, and Teelings whiskey distillery is located there now, he says.

The council closing lanes “is a total abdication of responsibility for the city”, says Rose.

Six years ago, Dublin City Council was working up alternative vibrant visions for the laneways of Dublin 1.

As part of the council-led Reimagining Dublin One project, architect Sean Harrington was tasked with drawing up an action plan to animate some of the laneways.

He proposed sprucing them up with landscaping and lighting and encouraging businesses to use the spaces to attract footfall.

Dublin City Council didn’t respond before publication to a query sent Thursday about implementing those measures.

Before closing off any thoroughfares the council should carry out a full analysis of what is going on on the road, says Johnny Connolly, a criminologist at the University of Limerick.

“Closing a laneway should be an absolute last resort,” he says.

Connolly was involved in the A Better City for All partnership, which brought together Gardaí, drug services and homeless services, with the business community, the council and others.

If drug use is the issue it is an opportunity to offer treatment options to people, he says. “Sometimes people are hard to reach as it is, so driving them further into potentially harmful behaviour is not a solution.”

Closing the laneway means that the drug use will move elsewhere and so the council has to consider the possibility of unintended consequences, he says.

There are some situations that warrant it, he says. “You can understand if it really gets out of control.”

But any closure of roads and lanes should be done temporarily, rather than permanently, Connolly says.