Start of construction at Guinness Quarter is near, says developer – as it seeks tweaks to planning permission
Proposed changes include dropping three-bedroom homes, in favour of more smaller ones in the block of future social housing.
Plans show the play area at St James's National School on Basin View converted into an all-weather pitch, with floodlights, that can be used by local teams and community groups seven days a week.
Councillors at the South Central Area got word that phase two of the big project in the south inner-city is ready to move forward.
Amid a serious shortage of pitches in Dublin 8, the OPW only allows one soccer club to use its pitch at the War Memorial Gardens.
There were concerns about the impact on brent geese of the conversion of grassy areas to astroturf.
The pitch on Long’s Place is owned by CBS James’s Street, which has not responded to queries about why, and how that could be changed.
A plan for Dublin 1 laneways was drawn up six years ago. The council is starting to roll it out, said a council spokesperson.
It has abandoned an idea to remove a small astroturf playing pitch after weigh-in from the local community.
“And to watch a pitch like that lying idle is a travesty,” says Ronan Rasdale, an under-8s coach.
An early version of the plan ran a new footpath through a field used for football, but the council has changed course to preserve this informal pitch.
“We love football so it cannot be closed,” says Antoine Dunne, aged 11.
“We came in one day and the locks had been changed,” says Rivermount Boys FC chairman Rory Maher. “We went looking for it back and we were told no.”
“Now is the time to do it,” says Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty. “Attendance at games is skyrocketing.”