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

Add COS 3 Objective: To support and facilitate the provision of public toilets in every regional park and larger neighbourhood parks, separate to those located within community buildings.

REPORT:

The motion seeks a new objective within Policy COS 3 to state: ‘To support and facilitate the provision of public toilets in every regional park and larger neighbourhood parks, separate to those located within community buildings’. 

Provision of public toilets was debated at the full Council Meeting in October 2020. A feasibility study agreed by the Council is underway and it will be reported on to the Environment, Water and Climate Change SPC later in 2021. If the SPC agrees to recommend the provision of such facilities, then provision would need to be made in the 2022 budget for this. There is no current budget allocation for the provision of public toilets. Public toilets are provided in many SDCC facilities during public opening hours, such as County Hall, Clondalkin Civic Offices, Public Libraries, Leisure & Community Centres and Corkagh and Tymon Parks. There are a number of projects underway for various parks in the County which include the provision of toilets; these are in some cases incorporated into the structure of buildings including community buildings (e.g. the proposed Tymon Park Intergenerational Centre). This facility will provide public toilet facilities in that section of Tymon Park with supervision and maintenance provided by the operator of the community facility, so the proposed objective is too prohibitive in that regard.

As such the above objective is premature, overly prohibitive and pre-judges the delivery of the agreed feasibility study.

However, it is considered that an alternative new objective should be incorporated in the Draft Plan which would partially reflect the intent of the motion.  It is considered that the appropriate location for this new objective is within Policy COS 5.  The alternative proposed wording is as follows:

‘That the Council continues to progress the delivery of toilet facilities in parks in tandem with the delivery of built infrastructure in parks and open spaces (similar to the model proposed for Tymon Park Intergenerational Facility and Airlie Park) and in accordance with the outcome of any feasibility study undertaken in relation to provision of public toilets’.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the motion is adopted with amendment to include a new objective within Policy COS 5 to read as follows:

‘That the Council continues to progress the delivery of toilet facilities in parks in tandem with the delivery of built infrastructure in parks and open spaces (similar to the model proposed for Tymon Park Intergenerational Facility and Airlie Park) and in accordance with the outcome of any feasibility study undertaken in relation to provision of public toilets’.