COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 14, 2011

QUESTION NO.12

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager to report on how and when the elected members will be consulted regarding the roll-out of the ‘Public Realm Transformation Initiative’ during 2011 noting that €300,000 is allocated in Budget 2011 and that a further €180,000 not expended in 2010 was transferred to capital reserves and is also available for expenditure in 2011?

REPLY:

In 2010 it was agreed that transforming the public realm was a priority albeit a significant challenge.

There is no doubt that co-ordination between Departments will enable a more focused approach with regard to maintaining the public realm of the County - e.g. ensuring that the litter picking takes place in advance of grass cutting and work is on-going on bringing schedules such as these more in line with each other. In addition the area of community clean-ups requires coordinated effort in removal of materials, though this area is under review as it is important that communities are in a position to manage such clean-ups and that the costs associated with disposal are scheduled in as part of the work programme budgets.

 Other measures which will prevent / reduce illegal dumping are also being explored.

There are other complex IR issues in relation to some areas but where possible coordinated responses are being pursued across the Roads, Environment and Parks Departments on particular problem sites.  However we must also build into any transformation the role of communities in preventing damage to the public realm whether that is through littering, graffiti, illegal dumping, bonfire activity, or vehicle damage on open spaces. The Council has long been involved and supportive of building social capital in the County through its Community Work team, the Estate Management staff, Environmental Awareness initiatives and other activities which have supported communities to develop their own transformational agenda. A new strand of the Social Capital Building Programme in the form of a Social Credits Pilot Project which will be launched shortly will enable the Council to provide "rewards" as small additional incentives for communities who engage in maintaining their own areas.

In addition to this work, consultation meetings were held with the Members to identify a number of areas where a "once off" spend would remove the need to continually expend resources on maintaining areas. This consultation process served to identify a number of common issues throughout the County, e.g. dumping, littering, graffiti, derelict sites, grass cutting and the need for extended CCTV coverage throughout the County.  These findings were analysed  with solutions proposed  and a full schedule of the works, on a priority basis, was circulated to the Members.  Input was subsequently received from the Members and a revised schedule of works is now being prepared and will be re-presented to the Members in March 2011.