COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF LUCAN/PALMERSTON/NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Friday, December 18, 2020

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

To ask the Chief Executive if, given the numbers of people now using Glenaulin Park/Gaels Field, (additional) seats can be provided at a number of strategic locations.

REPLY:

The provision of seating in public parks is desirable and would usually be considered an enhancement. However, this is not always the case and in many public parks, the provision of seating has resulted in unintended consequences. In many cases, this has proven to be so difficult to resolve that, regrettably, the only effective solution has been to remove the seating.

While seating serves a worthwhile function in a park, the antisocial element associated with park furniture is often completely counterproductive. While there are generally few problems with park seating during normal park opening hours, after hours the seats become focal points for gatherings. These gatherings engage in a range of anti-social behaviour including drinking, littering, graffiti, lighting of fires, burning of wheelies bins and often result in vandalism and damage to the seat itself. 

The provision of seating in Glenaulin Park has been attempted on a number of occasions in the past. Early seat installations were removed due to vandalism and antisocial activities. These were replaced with more vandal resistant stone seats to retain some seating for bona fide park users that would withstand the rigours of abuse and vandalism. Regrettably, these benches were systematically vandalised beyond repair and were removed in the interests of public safety.

The most recent seat to be removed from Glenaulin Park was situated adjacent to the boundary at Glenaulin Green. The location for this seat was chosen as it was in proximity to a residential area which provided a level of passive supervision. Unfortunately, over time antisocial activities gravitated to this seat. It was not possible to identify a suitable alternative location for the seat and the only recourse was to remove it.

Given the past experience with seating in Glenaulin Park and the inability to identify an alternative location for the seat at Glenaulin Green, there are no current proposals to install seating.