COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, January 15, 2024

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor L. Hagin Meade

To ask the Chief Executive to outline the current research and audits taking place around attitudes and behaviour of residents when using footpaths and lighting in outdoor public spaces in SDCC?

REPLY:

SDCC’s County Development Plan contains policies regarding the requirement for active frontages facing onto parks and ensuring open spaces are designed to be safe places. During the development stage of projects such as  parks, public open spaces, housing schemes, active travel schemes and community facilities, designing for safety is one of the criteria that is included, this ensures measures such as active frontages and active usages are utilised as much as possible and views along footpaths are maintained where required. Where appropriate, An Garda Siochana are consulted to provide valuable feedback on public realm design and upgrade proposals e.g. during the recent design processes for St. Cuthbert's Park and Killinarden Park improvements.

Recent Initiatives that the Council has delivered include;

Cycle South Dublin

The Council is delivering several large active travel projects across the County along main roads, quieter streets, and through public spaces and parks. As part of these schemes, new public lighting and public lighting upgrades will be provided including for example within the Dodder Greenway and as proposed within Killinarden Park.  

Balgaddy Permeability Route

The Balgaddy Permeability Links scheme is due to be completed at the end of January 2024, the links provide new access for pedestrians and cyclists between the estates of Méile an Rí & Tór an Rí and Thomas Omer Way and the desire locations beyond. There is a clear demand for these routes in order to provide safe accessible access between the residential areas and schools and public transport connections on Thomas Omer Way.

Two shared use paths links are to be provided as part of the scheme:

The shared use paths will comply with accessibility requirements and the existing public lighting in the area will be modified to light the new paths.

Lighting up our Streets- Mac Uilliam Estate

Healthy South Dublin and Sláintecare Healthy Communities in partnership with Tallaght Community Arts were successful in their application to the Department of Justice under the Community Safety Innovation Fund for our new project ‘Generation Connections in MacUilliam Estate, Tallaght’. The amount awarded was €98,460.

The Community Safety Innovation Fund allows proceeds of crime to be directed into community projects to support community safety and youth justice. The funding targets the development of innovative proposals to improve community safety from those people who best understand local community safety needs.

The project and funding comprised of  three strands:

Lighting: €50,000 -Following consultation with residents, areas where additional lighting is needed were identified. The plan is to put the additional lights around the new walking path in the the estate to facilitate the delivery of health and wellbeing activities year-round.

Creative Places: €36,000- Tallaght Community Arts will run numerous projects under the theme of ‘Lighting up our streets’

Health and Wellbeing: €12,460- Community activities for all. Facilitators and local organisations will be engaged to run health and wellbeing initiatives throughout the year. Intergenerational projects will be delivered to assist with building community cohesion between the young and old.

Door to door consultations will commence in January 2024 through South Dublin County Partnership and Tallaght Community Arts. This will assist with raising awareness of the funding and developments that will take place over the coming months. The estimated project  deadline is December 2024.

Safe Walking Routes

Healthy South Dublin are currently examining additional walking routes under the Community Safety initiative and are targeting routes that already have sufficient streetlights along pathways and areas with high passing traffic/ busy footfall areas. The plan in conjunction with our LUPT Department is to identify a number of areas across the county, get the routes marked out with the distances along the paths and some SDCC/Healthy Ireland signage promoting the routes.

District and Village Centre Enhancement 

As part of upgrades to our village and district centres we include new and upgraded public lighting including for example in the completed Saggart and Templeogue Village and in the Castletymon District centre. 

Public Realm Improvement Works 

In the 2023 Public Realm Improvement Works programme the Public Realm Section installed a number of key pedestrian linkages and lighting schemes to aid accessibility, safety and permeability for residents. The following footpath schemes were installed.

In addition to this, the Public Realm Section have implemented three lighting schemes in the following locations, this has resulted in enhanced safety and increased pedestrian activity during the evening hours.

These schemes were compiled from issues raised as agenda items at area committee meetings throughout 2022, undertakings given in response to Council members' representations, customer care requests throughout the year, meetings with An Garda Síochána, as well as works that have been identified by staff.

As part of the 2024 Improvement Work Programme, Public Realm are proposing to provide public lighting across the open space from Monastery Gate Villas to Monastery Road to link with public transport.