COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

MOTION NO. 22

MOTION: Councillor R. Nolan

"That this Committee agrees to CCTV camera's in certain places in the Griffeen Park Lucan. Some area's in the park are been used by gangs for anti social behaviour and this might act as a deterrent."

REPORT:

"The Council endeavours to ensure that all its parks are safe at all times during opening hours. To ensure this occurs, passive supervision of parks is considered to be an essential measure. As far as possible, new planned parks are sited so that they are passively supervised by housing overlooking the park rather than backing onto or siding onto the park. Locations where houses back onto or side onto parks provide areas where anti-social activities are more likely to occur and every effort is made to eliminate these at the planning stage.

Not all parks are planned from a “blank canvas” and Griffeen Valley Park is one such example. There are some location in the park where housing backs onto the park and thinning of vegetation in these area is something that can assist with deterring anti-social activities.

During parks opening hours there are currently 4 Park Rangers employed to patrol the parks in the Palmerstown, Lucan and North Clondalkin areas. The Rangers are mobile and Griffeen Valley Park is included on the route that the Rangers visit. The parks are not patrolled outside of opening hours which is when most of the anti-social activities occur. We do however work closely with the Gardaí who provide support for our staff through their patrols and mountain bike unit to deter illegal activities. Communities can also play a role in the provision of safer parks by reporting anti-social activities to the Gardaí or directly to the Council. 

While CCTV has a role to play in minimising anti-social activities, it is considered to form only one part of what needs to be an integrated approach involving other elements such as parental and community responsibility and measures such as zero tolerance policing.

The most appropriate course of action at this stage would be to identify the locations where anti-social activities are occurring and develop a programme of pruning works to target these areas. Any information from the members regarding these locations would be most welcome."