The council finally has a plan to do up Clonsilla village

After almost 12 months of preparation, Fingal County Council unveiled its draft village framework plan for Clonsilla last week.

The draft plan, which aims to revitalise the Dublin 15 village, includes several projects. Among them, traffic management on the Clonsilla Road, active travel links, and the delivery of a new recreational space.

Produced following a public engagement process that started in early February 2024, this roadmap for sustainable development was urgently requested by local residents and councillors.

As developers submitted applications to the council for major housing projects in and around the village, they had voiced concerns that the community-led planning would be undermined and traffic conditions would worsen.

It was long overdue, Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly said, following a presentation on the plan at the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar area committee meeting on Tuesday, 14 January.

“It’s great to see a plan that’s giving the area a lot of character,” Donnelly said.

Once the draft is agreed, each of the projects is going to need detailed designs, Donal O’Ceallaigh, a council senior executive planner, told the area committee following his presentation.

After that, the council will seek planning consent for these projects through the “Part 8” process – meaning the council will apply to itself for permission, O’Ceallaigh said.

But before they move forward with these ideas, the council is seeking observations from the public until 14 February.

What does the plan say?

The council has a development plan that sets out councillors’ vision for the county for 2023–2029, and the zonings for the land.

But residents and councillors also wanted a plan specifically for Clonsilla.

Area residents have been waiting 16 years for an updated masterplan to set out what should be built in the village, Christine Moore of the Clonsilla and Porterstown Heritage Society, said back in July.

The council previously published its urban framework strategy for the village in May 2008.

A new Clonsilla framework plan – covering travel, housing, biodiversity, community amenities and the preservation of local heritage –  went out for public consultation in February 2024.

And this draft framework plan presented at the area committee meeting earlier this month is the result of that process.

The draft plan put forward a vision for eight key projects in the village, O’Ceallaigh said at the area committee meeting.

“That is what we’d like to happen,” he said. “This is what needs to happen.”

First, the council is looking to revive the village centre.

It plans to bring back Lohunda Lodge, a cottage on the Clonsilla Road, as a community centre, with an outdoor public space that could be used for markets and other events, and add a playground.

The process of creating a “redefined village centre” will also involve reducing vehicle speeds and revising the current car-parking arrangements to make it nicer to walk around the area.

New traffic measures were set out as the second of the plan’s projects.

The proposed changes are meant to encourage traffic that’s not headed to the village centre to go around it instead of through it.

In the village centre, the council would make changes to slow down traffic, including narrowing the road, making turns at junctions sharper, and changing the road surface.

For cyclists and pedestrians, the plan envisages a segregated path about 200 metres long to the south of the Clonsilla Road, leading east from the Dart station to the Weaver’s Walk junction.

This “active travel” path would then switch to the north side of Clonsilla Road, leading into the proposed new public space at Lohunda Lodge.

Due to the narrowness of the Clonsilla Road and its treelines, cycle lanes proved a tricky one for the council to deal with, O’Ceallaigh said at the meeting. “It doesn’t leave a huge amount of space to widen it to provide active transport.”

They have looked at one-way systems, he said. “But ultimately the one we went for was mixed. It would be a cycle lane inside the boundary of where those trees are.”

This would allow for a mixed cycling and pedestrian route, he said. “If they don’t want to cycle along that road, it gives them a very good option to go all the way from the train station down towards the centre of the village there.”

And then there would be a mixed-traffic zone, which would entail works to narrow the carriageway, he said. And big white pictures of bicycles painted on the road, to indicate that cyclists and motorists would share the road there.

In Castlefield Park, the plan has proposed new pathways along desire lines – informal trails made in grassy areas by feet over time – a playground, new seating and recreational facilities, like exercise machines.

Both the western and eastern gateways on the Clonsilla Road were flagged for improvement works, with active travel crossings, a new bus set-down spot and enhanced pedestrian and cycle access outside St. Mochta’s National School

The council also intends to connect this project with the Royal Canal Urban Greenway, for which the council is due to submit a planning application to An Bord Pleanála in the second quarter of 2025.

On the Porterstown Road, a raised crossing was listed among the projects, which will also improve access to St Mochta’s School.

And finally, a “wayfinding” project was set out, which would involve putting up signs to help people get around the village, and learn about its heritage.

Where to next?

Since the council first started its public engagement process for the new framework plan, in February 2024, councillors and locals alike had been anxiously awaiting its arrival.

It could provide residents with a chance to preserve Clonsilla’s heritage, Sinn Féin councillor Donnelly said on Tuesday. “Since I came onto the council there had been a lot of discussion about lost heritage.”

Over the summer, they had requested its publication as developer McHugh Property Holdings, on 11 July, applied to the council to build 170 apartments behind the Clonsilla Inn on the Clonsilla Road.

McHugh’s proposal highlighted the need for the plan, as Labour Councillor John Walsh, in July, warned that it could risk adding pressure onto the already busy road.

With the highest of these potential blocks being five storeys tall, the prospect of taller flats like that cropping up in Clonsilla made locals worry about the visual impact, says Donnelly, the Sinn Féin councillor.

“I think people looked to this framework plan as something that would copper-fasten and enhance the village and planning around the area going forward,” she said.

The council, on 24 September, granted McHugh permission to proceed. However, local residents have appealed that decision to An Bord Pleanála.

The previous roadmap for sustainable development in Clonsilla was its urban centre strategy, which was launched by the council in May 2008.

But whereas that strategy looked at the use of land for residential and business purposes, this new framework focuses on public amenities, transport and heritage.

The draft framework plan was received positively by councillors at the area committee last Tuesday.

All going to plan, it would mean major, major changes to the Clonsilla Road, Fianna Fáil Councillor Tom Kitt said.

But the timeline is unclear.

Each of the projects will require its own detailed design, O’Ceallaigh said. “Everything in terms of any works that need to be done, if they need planning consent, Part 8, will have to go through that process.”

According to the draft plan, the projects expected to be delivered in the short to medium term are the Clonsilla Road eastern gateway and the wayfinding works.

After that are the road-traffic management, “redefined” village centre, western gateway and Porterstown Road projects.

Active travel links and the Castlefield Park plans are set for the medium to long term, according to the presentation.

For potential funding streams, the council is looking at grants from the national government, including the Active Travel Investment Grant, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, and the Local Enhancement Programme, the draft plan says.

Labour Councillor John Walsh raised an adjacent matter, asking about whether the council had any news on when it might share the masterplan for the derelict old school house on the Porterstown Road.

The council has consultants working on that at the moment, O’Ceallaigh said. “That will be imminent. We hope to get that done in the next few months.”