COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

MOTION NO. 12

MOTION: Councillor William Joseph Carey

"That this Area Committee calls upon South Dublin County Council to bring forward plans to address the chronic traffic congestion in and around the Rathcoole Area and that Council liaise with community groups in addressing this problem."

REPORT:

The recently adopted National Planning Framework “Project Ireland 2040”, is the official blueprint for population distribution and the basis from which individual county population targets will be set. Within each county population growth areas are determined, to ensure alignment with county and national targets and to guide infrastructural investment. Within the Council’s Development Plan, Rathcoole is defined as a “small town” with limited capacity for growth. In the context of existing plans including SDZs at Adamstown and Clonburris, Local Area Plans at Ballycullen, Tallaght and Fortunestown, the growth areas are well defined and not going to change. Furthermore, the National Planning Framework is heavily committed to the consolidation of growth, with the regeneration of brownfield sites a priority.

Given this clear strategic direction, I do not envisage the “small town” status of Rathcoole changing. In terms of traffic, the Council appreciates that Rathcoole is impacted by peak traffic associated with driver behaviour and the general upturn in economic activity. While traffic movements on and off the N7 are a matter for TII, the Council does of course take an active interest in traffic patterns and will continue to do so.

The Council will continue to assess traffic patterns in this area, which are presenting difficulties at peak times, but no more than you would expect in an edge of city environment. Driver behaviour may be part of the problem and if this can be moderated through basic interventions such as signage or redirection it will be examined, provided of course, it simply does not move this issue to another junction with less capacity and make matters worse. I hope these clarifications are of assistance.

The Council is in the process of preparing a county wide Sustainable Transport Plan that will assess and identify what new transport measures can be put in place to enable people to move onto more sustainable modes of transport. As part of this work we will be looking at the busiest routes and locations across the County.