Councillors have been asking for months why the council decided to put its plan to install 350 shared on-street secure bike-storage lockers under review.
Pitched as a measure to speed housing construction, opposition politicians say it’s unlikely to help much. “A solution in search of a problem,” one called it.
“Another improvement might be if councillors just stated their name and party on the first occasion they speak at a meeting,” writes Brigid Ní Raghallaigh.
Dublin City Council has had to cancel or postpone some meetings in light of Covid-19 restrictions, but there are plans to go ahead with the May monthly meeting, albeit with fewer councillors in attendance.
The objectives of the area plan have been mostly met or are in the process of being met, said a recent council report. Not all councillors in the area agree, though.
The Department of Housing’s changes to rules on building heights are yet another attack on local democracy. Maybe they should stop all the meddling and just build some homes, writes a DIT lecturer.
There’s an inflexibility to rezoning industrial land, wrote a Department of Housing official in an email in February. “Its been represented to me quite a few times.”
Councillors only have two major powers left, says independent Councillor Christy Burke. With one of these recently undermined, “there’s more power in a light bulb”.
At their monthly meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a plan to build housing next to St Anne’s Park, how to decide who gets social housing first, the cancellation of a literary event, and more.
