COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

MOTION NO. 19

MOTION: Councillor E. Tuffy

That this Committee recognises that residents in Sarsfield and Vesey Terraces Lucan, and other residents in and around the centre of Lucan Village have endured disturbance and inconvenience, including noise, air pollution and other negative effects, arising from the practice of taxi drivers using the roadway outside their residences as a location to wait, often with engines running, and often late at night, for a vacant space to become available on the existing small Taxi Rank beside the Village Green, acknowledges that a number of retail outlets in Main street Lucan, close to AIB, would be adversely affected by a restriction in parking outside their premises in the period between 6 and 10 pm, and requests the Manager to bring forward for discussion at the Area Committee meeting a proposal for the provision of a single larger Taxi Rank on the Old Lucan Road, between the Newcastle Road junction and the Topaz Station, excluding the Dublin Bus Stop space.

REPORT:

The Road's Department is aware of the issues resulting from night time use of parking areas in Lucan Village.  In the recent past various plans have been proposed, developed and put forward for review by all relevant stakeholders, without a sufficient level of agreement being achieved.  It must be an objective of any solution that may be proposed that it has the support of users, is self-enforcing, is seen as a workable solution and attracts taxi drivers to correctly use the provided facility. Should it occur that taxis are casually able to get better benefit from avoiding a provided taxi rank then the current issues may remain unresolved.

Following meetings with local traders a preference to relocate the taxi rank to the northern side of the Lucan Road was proposed.  Initially the area in the vicinity of the bus stop was identified as it is currently a parking area.  However this proposal would place the head of the queue for the first taxi furthest from customers leaving the village. The up hill nature of the rank would also mitigate against the easy progressing of taxis and would most likely result in stopping / starting of the engines of all taxis in the queue when the first taxi moves off. While it would be possible to provide adequate space for taxis, its use is at best uncertain.

As it is clear that there is substantial agreement among stakeholders to the location of a taxi rank on Lucan Road, consideration has been given to alternatives which might be considered would generate a greater degree of success. If a taxi rank was to be provided on the opposite (southern) side of the road it was considered that notwithstanding the need to regularise the road layout, the existing bus stop and the existing Pay and Display spaces, that it would be possible to achieve a workable design which respected existing entrances and side roads.

The proposal in summary would involve:

• the provision of 4 - 6 taxi rank spaces, reserved on a 24 hour basis for such use, outside Village Court on the southern side of the Lucan Road, by reconfiguring the existing parking bays and bus stop
• the installation of an overflow contra flow taxi waiting area from 8pm on the parking spaces on the northern side of Lucan Road
• the removal of the existing taxi rank spaces in the village area

A sketch layout showing how this proposal would operate is attached to this report. If the Members agree that the proposals form a workable solution to the provision of taxi rank spaces in the Lucan Village area, then further consultations will be held with the relevant stakeholders with a view to the earliest implementation of the proposals.