COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Thursday, June 17, 2021

MOTION NO.

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell, Councillor P. Gogarty, Councillor L. O'Toole

In section 8.5 Community Centres, amend paragraph three section … 'the Council will apply a standard of one large district level multi-functional community centre per 9,000 population' to read 'the Council will apply a standard of one large district level multi-functional community centre per 5,000 population.'

REPORT:

This motion is proposing to amend the text in Section 8.5 Community Centres, paragraph 3, which states:

“The Council has examined community centre provision within the County and in other locations within Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain, as part of the Social Infrastructure Audit.  Having considered this research, the Council will apply a standard of one large district level multi-functional community centre per 9,000 population or smaller centres at a more local level as identified to address specific needs. Needs may be determined on particular local issues including demographics and accessibility.  A district level community centre should be approximately 1,200 -1,800 sq m in size to accommodate a variety of needs such as a sports hall to facilitate, for example, badminton/basketball /indoor soccer with associated changing rooms, toilets, storage, offices, meeting rooms, café and children’s play area.  Local level community centres should generally be between 350-650sqm in size to accommodate a range of spaces, meeting rooms, toilets, café and children’s play area.  Where the size of a new development would not, of itself, require a community centre, the Council may seek a pro rata contribution towards a planned new centre”.

To:

“The Council has examined community centre provision within the County and in other locations within Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain, as part of the Social Infrastructure Audit.  Having considered this research, the Council will apply a standard of one large district level multi-functional community centre per 5,000 population…….”

To simply insert the number ‘5000’ without any justification or evidence base would not reflect the findings of the analysis which was carried out in order to derive a suitable metric whereby a community facility would be required/should be provided. As such, based on the research, it would be factually incorrect and misleading to suggest that the examination of community centre provision within Ireland and in the UK and Northern Ireland indicated that 1 centre per 5000 population was an applicable standard.

As there is no Irish standard for the provision of such facilities the analysis examined a number of existing Local Area Plans and the SDZ schemes within South Dublin alongside, the Dublin Docklands Social Infrastructure Audit, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, a number of UK standards from Cambridge, Oxford, and Causeway Coast and Borough Council. In addition, the Belfast City Council Standard was examined which applies a comparative analysis with Glasgow, Derry & Strabane, Dundee, Bristol and Islington.

Taking the above into consideration the Standard that one district level community centre between 8-10,000 persons was derived as the appropriate general metric to be applied, subject to local needs and accessibility. Applying the mid-range of 1 large multifunctional centre of approximately 1,200sq m – 1,800 sqm per 9,000 population is therefore considered to be appropriate. 

In related motions, Motion ID 71255 also seeks to reduce the threshold applied for the provision of community centres from 9,000 to 5,000. No justification is set out in the proposed motion for same.  Motion 71258 follows from this and seeks to amend all references to 9,000 to read 5,000 within the Plan.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this motion is not adopted.