COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE/FIRHOUSE/BOHERNABREENA AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, September 08, 2020

QUESTION NO. 1

QUESTION: Councillor Carly Bailey

To ask the Chief Executive to outline all public amenities such as skate parks and basketball courts available for use in both the Rathfarnham/Templeogue and Firhouse/Bohernabreena local electoral areas. To ask the Chief executive if there are any plans to increase in number these kinds of amenities and if he would like to make a statement in relation to same.

REPLY:

The public amenities in the local electoral areas (LEAs) named, include 9 parklands in the Rathfarnham/Templeogue LEA and 10 parklands within the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA. (Some of these parks straddle both electoral areas and extend into different LEAs). The public parkland provided amounts to over 360 hectares with extensive walking and cycling routes and access to open spaces and visual amenity as well as ancillary facilities. Within the parks the following active recreational facilities are provided: 51 pitches within the Rathfarnham/Templeogue LEA and 12 pitches within the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA. The pitches include GAA, soccer, cricket, rugby and athletics tracks as well as a bowling green. There are 3 locations of adult exercise equipment in Rathfarnham/Templeogue LEA in addition to 1 tennis court / basketball hub and 1 dog run.

Within the Firhouse Bohernabreen LEA, at Firhouse there was a recent upgrade of 2 grass pitches to a large sand based pitch, and a second grass pitch was recently upgraded and will be fully opened there shortly. In addition, 2 sand based pitches were recently opened in the Rathfarnham/Templeogue LEA and a further grass based pitch has completed an extensive upgrade and is at establishment stage; all at Tymon Park. A new grass soccer pitch and athletic track is under development at Mt Carmel in the Firhouse Bohernabreen LEA and a small BMX track is planned there as well.

Playspaces / playgrounds are also provided; with 9 in the Rathfarnham/Templeogue LEA and 2 in the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA. Several new playspaces are proposed in the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA as follows: several are proposed as part of the Kiltipper Park Part 8, as well as the 3 new playspaces proposed in Dodder Valley as part of the 3 playspaces and play trail (1 of these extend into Tallaght LEA). A new playspace is also under construction at Firhouse, and a further one is planned for Delaford (-post the construction of the adjacent school). In addition the existing playspace at Ballycragh is being enhanced and expanded as part of the Public Particpatory Budget projects.

Nature trails have been installed in the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA at Mt Carmel and 2 more are planned as part of the Public Participatory Budget projects in this LEA as well.

A long distance walking route; the Dublin Mountains Way, is provided and includes a section of Kiltipper Park in the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA. The Dodder Greenway passed Part 8 a number of years ago and there are several phases of it currently completed or underway; which will extend through both LEAs.

Teenspaces are proposed: 1 at Ballycragh in the Firhouse Bohernabreena LEA and 1 in the Templeogue area as part of Phase 2. These are at various stages of consultation and design.

The Council has recently passed a Sports Pitch Strategy which examined the need and requirement for pitches within the county and the Council is currently implementing same. In addition the review of the County Development Plan has commenced and the council has commenced a Parks and Open Spaces Strategy to run in tandem; both will review the existing provision of parks, open spaces and recreational facilities in the county and make provision for new facilities based on existing and projected need. Public Consultation will form part of this process.