While awaiting dramatic revamp of Newmarket Square approved in 2017, council plans smaller improvements

As it has not yet delivered a planned makeover of Newmarket approved in 2017, Dublin City Council is for now planning less ambitious improvements to the public space.

Council managers in 2017 proposed, and councillors approved, a plan to pave the square, plant trees, put seating, install a DublinBikes station, add a café with outdoor seating, and provide electricity and water points for stall holders at outdoor markets.

Instead, the markets that used to be held on and around the square were evicted, the square has remained an area for cars and trucks to drive through and park on. Particularly vehicles associated with construction of big new blocks next to the square.

Now the construction on the square between the square and Cork Street – including of the apartment complex Newmarket Yards, the Premier Inn, and the Nido Ardee Point student housing block – is winding down.

So it’s time to do something with the square itself, Stephen Coyne, economic development officer at the South Central Area Office, told councillors at a meeting last Wednesday, 20 March.

“There’s obviously quite a lot of development happening in and around the square, there’s a lot of new residential units that have come on stream as well, and I suppose the square needs to respond to that,” Coyne said.

He presented a report on “a series of rapid-install measures” for the square that the council plans to move ahead with now.

The goal is to “increase the extent of pedestrian space on the square, to reduce the extent of car parking and restrict parking to the west end of Newmarket, and to better regulate and manage traffic flows on the square”, it says.

The big plan

Back in 2017, a plan signed by then chief executive Owen Keegan proposed to divide Newmarket into three zones.

The Cultural Square was to be at the eastern end of Newmarket, where there’s a big red-brick block stuck in the middle of that part of the square.

The plan was to convert that substation into a cafe with indoor seating, and a new glass roof extending beyond the footprint of the building to provide cover for external seating.

A “significant area of the square” was to be paved with granite and made a pedestrian area.  There’d be some new trees too.

The Universal Square was to be in the central area of Newmarket. It would be “a pedestrianised and multi-functional market square”, paved in granite, with more trees.

“It is considered that the removal of traffic and upgrading of the public domain would serve to provide a receptive environment to encourage an active street market,” the proposal says.

The Brabazon Square would be down at the west end of Newmarket, where the Ardee Point student housing block is now. It’d be mainly a surface car park, the proposal says.

Councillors approved this plan back in 2017 through the Part 8 process – where the council applies to itself for planning permission for a project it wants to do.

On Monday morning, this work on the public square at Newmarket had not been done. The space was simply a broad expanse of asphalt with car parking on all sides.

The brick substation at the eastern end is still just a battered brick block, with weeds growing out of it, and a skip next to it – not a cafe with seating and trees around it.

Development

Ardee Point, the Premier Inn and Newmarket Yards now rise five and six storeys along the northern side of the square.

On the south side, there’s Teelings, an office building, and construction was underway on Monday for a new build-to-rent apartment complex next to the office building on the south-west corner of the square.

As the report presented to councillors at last week’s meeting put it, “the area has seen the progressive replacement of former light industrial units and warehouses, and a number of longstanding vacant sites, with new high density developments”.

“From being a little used and overlooked area, Newmarket now has a substantially increased resident population, high levels of visitor footfall,” the report says.

Now that Adree Point is done, with more than 300 student beds, and Newmarket Yards is pretty much done, with more than 500 apartments, “Newmarket is set to experience much greater levels of pedestrian use and there is a greater need for dedicated pedestrian space,” the report says.

The interim plan

At the meeting last Wednesday, Coyne told councillors there’s been no progress on the ambitious remaking of Newmarket’s public realm since the plan was adopted years ago.

“That unfortunately hasn’t moved since then,” Coyne said.

“The delay, as with a lot of our, a number of our public-realm schemes, lies in, they tend to go to Roads Design to develop into detailed designs and this scheme hasn’t really been taken up by Roads Design as of yet due to resourcing issues,” he said.

The report Coyne presented at last week’s meeting also mentioned that “The progress of the scheme has also been impacted by the scale and sequencing of development work around the square.”

The Part 8 planning permission for the remake of Newmarket’s public realm is still valid, Coyne said. There’s money, too, the report says.

“The approved Public Realm Improvement Scheme is currently listed in the Council’s Capital Programme and the project is supported funded by the Urban Regeneration & Development Fund (Tranche II),” it says.

However, now, “we’re really at a point now where we really do need to kind of develop better pedestrian facilities … while we’re waiting for the finished product to come along,” Coyne said.

He presented a plan to build out the footpath in front of Teelings on the south side of the square, to make it a 10- to 12-metre wide pedestrian area. And widen the footpath on much of the north side of the square to 3 metres wide.

These changes would also include “installing street furniture including tree planters, seating and bollards as required”, the plan says.

Green Party Councillor Michael Pidgeon asked how the plan would impact parking on the square. It’ll be reduced, Coyne said. “But I guess it’s quite overly provided at the moment.”

When making the changes, could “a priority be given to lightness, whatever form that takes, because the towers of Newmarket can be kind of imposing”, Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine asked Coyne.

She suggested coloured lighting. “I find them really attractive and soothing, and I think it defines certain areas, and it brings a nice feeling to spots.” That’d be a nice idea, Coyne said.

Right to Change Councillor Sophie Nicoullaud asked whether the changes would include permeable surfaces to sop up rain. “It’d be good to see planting but on the ground, we need the water to go somewhere.”

“I take your point,” Coyne said, but this is just a temporary scheme.

There won’t be a formal, statutory public consultation on this interim plan, Coyne said. Instead, the council is just going to check in with “stakeholders” around the square about it, he said.

The report says that “The current expectation is that the main works will be undertaken by a contractor during the summer.”