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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 12, 2020

QUESTION NO.6

QUESTION: Councillor Yvonne Collins

To ask the Chief Executive whether there is an overall plan for the development of Dodder Valley Park from the Knocklyon/Firhouse junction up to Old Bawn, to include improved cycle/pathways, planting and ponds to integrate with the Greenway, playtrail and playspaces

REPLY:

Dodder Valley Park is an amalgamation of a number of smaller parks which stretch along the Dodder River and provide parkland, passive and active recreational facilities and act as a biodiversity refuge and ecological corridor for a variety of flora and fauna. River Valleys are particularly valuable ecological resource and the Dodder Valley is home to a proposed Natural Heritage Area. Dodder Valley Park is managed as a linked network of parks and open spaces and SDCC are conscious that it serves a wide variety of local communities that utilise the area close to their homes as their primary local park but also benefit from the ease of access to the wider parkland. The Park contains a comprehensive network of footpaths that serve both recreational needs as well as vital links within communities to schools, shops etc. When planning works within Dodder Valley SDCC view those works both in the context of contributing to the overall development of Dodder Valley Park but also in the context of delivering local facilites to local communities and protecting the environment. There are a number of initiatives, projects and improvement works recently completed and / or currently underway and / or planned within Dodder Valley Park which aim to improve the facilites within the park while carefully protecting the sensitive landscapes and biodiversity within the Dodder Valley. Among them include:

• Managing the park in a pollinator friendly manner with 15.80 hectares dedicated to wildflower meadow areas.
• Protection of wetlands and enhancement of same.
• The Dodder Greenway; which links the entire length of Dodder Valley Park; mainly utilising existing footpaths albeit upgrading them to allow for shared use or improved accessibility, and providing new pedestrian and cycle bridges, upgrades of accesses, lighting, new planting, furniture, signage and other landscape features.
• Public Realm are delivering, through the Have Your Say Project fund, a nature trail with seating through the park and are liaising closely with the Dodder Greenway design team to ensure the seats and signs are consistent across both projects within the park.
• The Old Bawn Pavillion and the re-lining and provision of goal posts for the existing sports pitches at Old Bawn was recently completed; as was the Ogham tree trail at Firhouse.
• Under tender at the moment are 3 playspaces and a playtrail; which is being carefully co-ordinated with the design of the Greenway to maximise use of sustainable, active travel to the proposed new facilites.
• The further development of the Mt Carmel area of Dodder Valley includes the proposed recreational facilites, of which the grass athletic pitch, grass sports pitch and footpath are currently under construction. These facilites were carefully designed with the Greenway proposals as the lights from the Greenway will provide some lighting for the sprint section of the track and the Greenway route over-looks and provides passive surveillance to the facilities.

Overall the plans for the Dodder Valley are complementary to each other and, during the project planning stages, the cumulative impact of each were carefully considered and the design teams co-ordinate with each other at both the design and delivery stages.