COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

HEADED ITEM NO. H-I 16

Update on Public Realm Initiative

REPORT:

Public Realm Initiative

The Public Realm initiative was established as part of the Budget 2010 process.  It was agreed that this would track income and as such the final amount in 2010 was €300,000 with an additional €300,000 being allocated in the 2011 budget.  This fund was not to form part of the routine maintenance of an area but rather it would transform an area by eliminating the need to maintain it into the future e.g. that it would not be necessary to continually send in crews to remove dumping, graffiti, cut grass, etc.

In the first instance funding was available and work underway on the construction of a new boxing club in the Neilstown area and an immediate investment of €120,000 enabled the elimination of a site of significant anti-social behaviour at the rear of the building.  This action was agreed in 2010 and work has been completed.

In August 2010 a process was initiated with the Members to identify sites where this one-off spend would completely eradicate a problem. Each site was reviewed and in some cases the problem had been resolved, funding was available elsewhere to tackle it or in others it was a matter of routine maintenance and did not fulfill the criteria of the Public Realm Fund.  In particular this covered areas where littering was an on-going issue.

Each site was further reviewed and criteria developed which enabled ranking of the qualifying projects in order of importance.  The criteria used to prioritise the works were as follows.

	Criteria	Score
1	Enhanced Security/Safety	10
2	Reduce/Remove Anti-social Behaviour	8
3	Reduce/Remove Littering	6
4	Enhanced Quality of Life	4
5	Reduce/Remove Additional Maintenance	3
6	Enhanced Business Address/Tourism	1

Using the criteria outlined, each of the sites has been prioritised.     In this tranche of funding only Priority 1 sites will be addressed and there are two initiatives included in the Lucan area.

Site No.	Address	Priority	Details	Proposed solution	Estimated Cost
97	Old Lucan Road To South Of Castle Riada	1	Section of the former Lucan-Newlands Road at Moy Glas Estate, Lucan, Dumping and Anti-Social behaviour	Proposed to open this area to the public as a walkway with paved surface and secure fencing both sides.	90,000.00
112	County Wide	1	Anti-social, illegal dumping, graffiti	Locations listed in report and schedule as Section 6.   Installation & monitoring of CCTV	28,571.00
					118,571.00

A number of sites were identified where an on-going problem could be resolved if enforcement mechanisms could be applied.  Therefore the installation of CCTV was required.  An examination of the problem areas identified and the potential locations were fed into the process to install cameras and also to facilitate mobile cameras.  There is now one site included for the Lucan area. The monitoring will be provided as part of the proposed FAS internship programme and enforcement action taken as viable evidence becomes available.  Exact costing is being prepared.  The overall cost for the County is estimated at €200,000.  In addition it is proposed to advance the fibre networks throughout the County to support it.

Section 6 (CCTV)

Site No.	Address	Priority	Description	Proposed solution	Estimated Cost
63	Ballyowen Shopping Centre Bring Banks	6	Litter and illegal dumping.	CCTV	0.00
					0.00

The substantial issue of littering which was a common concern of all of the members is being addressed by a particular campaign of the Council in order to bring about a stronger ownership of the issue across the county.  Details of this campaign will be brought to the next Environment SPC under the auspices of the new Litter Management Plan. 

A small internal Task Force will be established to explore and develop creative solutions to problem sites and when such solutions are established, they will be costed and prioritised as appropriate.