Plans for all-weather pitch in Ashtown stalled due to concerns about brent geese

Dublin City Council’s plans to redevelop sports facilities at Martin Savage Park have stalled after a last-minute intervention by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, flagging concerns about the impact on brent geese.

Around 2,000 people put in submissions to the council’s recent consultation on how to upgrade the Ashtown green space. The council’s proposals are for an all-weather pitch, a new playground, and floodlights on another pitch, among other changes.

As many as 30,000 light-bellied brent geese swoop into Ireland every October after a 3,000 km journey from the Canadian high arctic – and some land and graze on the grassy lands in Martin Savage Park.

On the last day of the consultation, the Department of Housing wrote to the council, asking it to carry out a new assessment looking at possible “combination effects” of these changes and other mooted artificial pitches on the geese.

A more comprehensive survey of Martin Savage Park needs to take place over the winter, the letter says.

“If you are talking about converting one pitch, it’s no big deal,” says Helen Boland, the Dublin Bay birds project manager with Birdwatch Ireland. “But it’s the cumulative effect that is becoming a concern.”

Areas across Dublin are lobbying for more winter sports facilities but that risks depleting habitats for the protected species. “We don’t know what the tipping point is,” Boland says.

An environmental assessment commissioned by the council found no goose droppings in the part of the park where the astroturf is set to go. They seem to prefer other patches of the park, it says, and aren’t loyal to particular sites.

Local residents, though, have photos and videos of geese on the eastern end where the all-weather pitches are proposed. Residents say they are still worried about possible flooding from any changes too, as homes nearby have flooded before.

Labour Councillor Declan Meenagh says concerns for brent geese were flagged early on. “There are so many issues with this development, I never thought it was viable,” he says. “I feel like I was shouted down.”

But most local councillors have backed the proposal. The area really needs more all-weather playing pitches, they say.

“We don’t have enough sports facilities for kids,”  says Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll. “I’m really passionate about young girls playing sports.

An important site

Each summer, light-bellied brent geese take flight from their mating grounds in the Arctic in Canada, refuelling and resting in Greenland and Iceland for a couple of months, before arriving in Ireland each October.

Around 98 percent of the global population flock to Ireland, says Boland.

In general, water bird populations are in decline across the country, says Boland. Brent geese thrived in Dublin Bay until just a few years ago, when their numbers also started to fall, she says.

Brent geese used to feed mainly on seagrass in the estuaries in Dublin Bay, says Boland. But since the 1990s, for reasons that are not well understood, the birds have moved inland and started feeding on grasslands in the city.

“Converting one or two pitches at the beginning mightn’t seem like a big deal,” says Boland.

But since the geese are already being disturbed from the bays and estuaries, it is hard to predict the impact if more feeding sites are removed, she says.  “We don’t really know what the ultimate impact will be.”

Legally, the state must protect the brent geese as they are considered a part of the special protection area in Dublin Bay, she says.

“The light-bellied brent geese are a ‘qualifying interest’ is the term, of the special protection area in Dublin,” says Boland. “They are a bird of special interest. They are an incredibly important species.”

Sean Hartigan, who lives in Glendhu Park housing estate, right beside Martin Savage Park, says locals know full well that brent geese use the entire park for foraging.

“They have been calling for a full ecological assessment from day one,” says Hartigan, who has also raised concerns in the past that changes to the pitches could increase the already-high flood risk.

A nature impact assessment carried out as part of the council’s planning process found that Martin Savage Park as a whole was a major site of importance to the birds.

It is “one of three sites of major importance within a 4 km radius of the study site, with four of high importance and two of moderate importance”, the report says.

But the report found that the part of the park most used by the geese was different from the part earmarked for the astroturf.

Hartigan disputes this. He has photos and videos of the geese using that part of the park.

The redevelopment plans also include floodlights on the senior GAA pitch, which is the part of the park most used by the brent geese. The environmental impact report says the lighting wouldn’t affect the birds because they use the pitches during daylight.

The planning application doesn’t include plans to drain that pitch or change it from grass to sand-based, but St Oliver Plunkett Eoghan Ruadh GAA Club says on its website that it plans to do both of those.

“Floodlit GAA pitch with improved drainage and a sand-based surface to allow for improved playability throughout the year,” it says.

Boland says the geese won’t be able to use the pitch to feed if it is sand-based.

Hartigan says the floodlights will only be useful if the changes are made to the pitches, to make them playable in winter.

“The impact of the drainage and resurfacing works required for the main GAA pitch has not been considered in either of the eco studies,” says Hartigan.

Any such works could have a flood impact that also isn’t being considered, since those works aren’t included in the planning application, he says.

The drains in the area have no spare capacity, he says. “These plans will actually make the flooding problem worse.”

What happens next?

Dublin City Council didn’t respond in time for publication to queries submitted on Friday.

The Department of Housing has asked the council to carry out a comprehensive survey of the geese in the park. It doesn’t accept that they can just move on somewhere else.

“The potential adverse effects on the future usage of any site in the Dublin area currently regularly used by large numbers of brent geese… must be considered significant,” says the letter.

It suggests moving the playground and scrapping some of the paths and access points “so as to minimize possible disturbance of the geese by pedestrians and dogs”.

O’Driscoll, the Social Democrats councillor, says councillors have spent four years hammering out a compromise with everyone interested in Martin Savage Park.

The plans wouldn’t just transform the sports facilities to make much-needed winter pitches, but also add features to make the park more accessible for older people, including seating areas, says O’Driscoll.

Meenagh, the Labour councillor, says that those who want the changes to the park and those who don’t, are now unhappy with the council’s handling of the project. “There is absolute fury on both sides.”

As he sees it, other locations near Martin Savage Park could be explored for an all-weather pitch. “We need to be brave enough to tell people that something isn’t viable if it isn’t,” says Meenagh.

And, as more communities demand sports facilities, city planning needs to catch up with a comprehensive response, said Meenagh.

Dublin City Council is currently rolling out a comprehensive sports strategy, planning to map existing sports facilities to spot the gaps it needs to plug.

But fundamentally, says Meenagh, “how do we provide more sporting facilities and also provide space for nature?”