COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

QUESTION NO. 4

QUESTION: Councillor M. Ward

"Can the Council provide a report on the estimated costs of raising the perimeter barrier around St Cuthbert's Park?

This report should include costing's of the following options.

Building on top of the existing wall?

Replacing the existing wall with a new wall?

Adding fencing and hedges to the existing wall?

Replacing the existing wall with fencing and hedges?"

REPLY:

The boundary wall around St Cuthbert’s Park is approximately 1,520 meters long. There are 4 types of construction used in the wall and these include:

   1 St Cuthbert’s Road-Deansrath Park-Lindisfarne Grove and Lealand Road: A solid block wall with a limestone face and limestone capping.

  1. Melrose Park: This 78 meter long section is of similar construction to the above with a low railing on top of it.
  2. Melrose Park/Green to Deansrath Green and Westbourne Rise: These section are comprised of a concrete slip form type construction and measure approximately 450 meters and 23 meters in length.
  3. Westbourne Rise – a 6 meter section of solid block wall with a sandstone face and capping.

The full boundary of the park was planted with hedging in the past and large sections of it are still present today. There are however significant gaps which generally coincide with areas that are being dumped on or areas that have been vandalised.

With regard to the four boundary treatment suggestions, the existing solid block wall with stone facing has not provided adequate security over the years around the park. For this reason it would not be appropriate to raise the height of the walls using this type of construction. Replacing the existing walls with fencing and hedges will reduce the security of the park and is not a viable option. Adding a fence to the existing walls is feasible, but again is likely to do little to discourage the type of anti-social activities that the walls are subjected to.

Replacing the wall with a new wall would appear to be the most robust option. A stone faced pre-cast concrete wall is likely to perform best at this location. The cost of removing the existing wall and replacing it with the stone faced pre-cast concrete would be extremely costly and may in fact be prohibitive.  The overall cost of this option is expected to be in the region of €500,000 to €600,000.

It is proposed to carry out a review of the most vulnerable sections of the park boundary and prepare tender documents for replacing these sections using the method described above.