On Talbot Street, residents want a bus stop moved from outside their front door

Residents in Talbot Hall on Talbot Street say they weren’t consulted on the recent plans to revamp their street – or when a bus stop was moved to outside their front door years ago.

Nicola Yau started pushing to get the bus stop moved three years ago, she says, after she was threatened by young people who were trespassing in the building.

Crowds gather at the bus stop, making it difficult for residents to get in and out of the complex at times. Residents have been threatened and spat at, after being tailgated into the building, say Yau and two neighbours.

People waiting for the bus often gather in their doorway for shelter, and lean against the door, says Des Foley, another resident. People don’t seem to release others live there, he said.

And “it allows other people who might be loitering to hang around outside and come in,”  says Foley, on 4 December. “They are kind of hiding among the bus crowd.”

On 8 December, exactly that happened. Someone slipped into the building behind residents, tried to break into apartments and broke the glass on a hall door, photos show.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner has been pushing the council to move the bus stop further down the street, she says.

Alongside the other changes on the street, it’s also symptomatic of a wider issue though, says Horner. Dublin City Council is failing to consult residents who live in the city centre when it’s rolling out projects in their area.

“Inner-city residents are taken for granted,” she says, which undermines efforts to encourage people to live in these neighbourhoods. “It’s ‘out of sight out of mind’.”

Dublin City Council hasn’t responded to queries sent on Thursday about the consultation process for changes in the city centre, and whether it differs from other areas.

But at a recent monthly meeting, Anthony Flynn, a senior executive officer with Dublin City Council, said he would discuss the consultation process for “enhancement works” with the City Coordination Office, the team in the council that is working to improve the city centre.

How long

Talbot Street is a busy shopping street with supermarkets, shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants on the ground floor as well as some apartment complexes.

In the lobby of Talbot Hall, Foley and another neighbour, Jean O’Toole, debate how long they have lived here. Foley moved in around 1996, he thinks. O’Toole reckons she was a few years later.

Back then, this was a sought-after location, says Foley.

Apartments were rarely advertised and, to rent one, he needed a reference from an existing resident, he says. “That was the kind of atmosphere.”

“If I ever said to anyone that I lived on Talbot Street, people were amazed, they thought you were a millionaire,” says Foley.

O’Toole nods. At the time, tenants rented directly from Irish Life, she says. “It wasn’t everyone they would rent to,” she says. “Everybody knew each other, it was all the same people.”

Talbot Mall next door was busy with shops at the time but the street was much quieter in the evenings, says Foley, because there were fewer pubs. “The street has changed drastically.”

O’Toole says she used to take the bus that now stops outside the front door but the bus stop was further towards O’Connell Street, she says.

She doesn’t know when it was moved.

Foley and O’Toole say that residents were not consulted or even informed about that move. “There was no consultation around that whatsoever,” says Foley. “It’s like we are in a blind spot.”

Break-ins

The main reason that Foley and O’Toole say they want the bus stop moved is for safety. Issues with groups of people accessing the building started a few years ago.

Yau says that former Labour Councillor Joe Costello had tried to help. But he didn’t manage to get the stop moved before he retired, she says.

Now, Horner, the Green Party councillor, has picked up the case. She is still trying to get the bus stop shifted a few yards down the street to a spot where it wouldn’t be outside a front door.

Horner says that Dublin City Council decides where bus stops should be located. The National Transport Authority has said it is open to the bus being moved, she says.

Council managers originally told her that it couldn’t be moved, she says. More recently, she was told that it might be moved as part of works on the street which are scheduled to take place in January.

“It’s frustrating,” says Horner. “It shouldn’t be this complicated.”

Nobody wants an obstruction at their front door, says Yau. “We’re not being nimbyistic,” she says. “I think it’s a really small ask to improve our quality of life, just so you can get in and out of the building.”

Because of multiple break-ins, she feels under pressure to open the door and get inside quickly, she says, without being followed.

Yau, Foley and O’Toole have all been verbally abused by trespassers inside their apartment complex.

They say that they reported incidents to Gardaí and so have other neighbours. The Garda press office says it doesn’t provide localised statistics for how many complaints it may have had from the building.

Changes and chats

Dublin City Council set up a City Coordination Office to try to better manage the city centre.

It leads on trying to implement the various ideas that have come out of reports on how to improve the city, working with “stakeholders” including business representatives, Failte Ireland, Dublin Bus and an Garda Síochana.

Among its initiatives are improvements to Talbot Street, with better lighting, more planting and an initiative to spruce up shopfronts.

Outside on the street, Yau points out new ornate street lighting, planting, and smoother pavements.

Foley says the improvements are welcome. “The works on the street are great. It’s great to see services being improved.”

And, they do make the area feel safer, he said. But residents are still piqued by the process, whereby businesses on the street were consulted while residents were not.

At the monthly council meeting on 2 December, Horner asked council managers whether there is a consultation process in place for residents who live in the city centre.

Given that the council talks about encouraging people to live in the city centre and above shops, she says, just like on Talbot Street. “It is something that I do feel is a significant concern.”