COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 09, 2024

MOTION NO.1

MOTION: Councillor J. Sinnott

This Council notes with concern the increasing number of sports pitches deemed unplayable over the course of winter and spring and the negative impact on local sports clubs and participants. In light of this growing issues this Council requests Council management to investigate further means to improve drainage and the possibility of increasing the number of all-weather pitches available in the County.

REPORT:

Data available from Met Eireann shows that the early months of 2024 and 2023 have been extremely wet periods when compared to long-term average (LTA) rainfall in Ireland. Taking data from the nearest weather station at Baldonnell the average annual rainfall is 754mm. Rainfall in 2023 at this location was recorded at 870mm (15% above the LTA) and in the 12 month period from May '23 to April '24 the recorded rainfall was 907mm (20% above the LTA). The months of February, March and April of this year have been particularly wet with average rainfall being exceeded by 48% over those 3 months and this followed an extremely wet second half of 2023 where average rainfall was exceeded by 33%. This left ground super-saturated and unable to carry heavy grass cutting machinery. As soon as weather improved, every effort was made to address this situation and this involved in many cases cutting and lifting the grass, cutting the pitch again and then rolling the pitches to make them playable.
The table attached to this motion shows records from 2022 to date showing pitch playability in SDCC.

Recognising the challenges in the provision of sports pitches; South Dublin County Council commissioned a Sport Pitch Strategy (SPS) in 2020 to provide the Council with a clear evidence base and set of recommendations for future outdoor sports facility development across the district. A SPS is a strategic assessment that provides an up-to-date analysis of supply and demand for playing pitches (grass and artificial) in the local authority. The strategy and the evidence upon which it is based is delivered using insight from specific Governing Bodies of Sport, national guidance and local stakeholder input. The strategy focused on the following sports: Soccer, GAA, Rugby Union, Hockey, Cricket and Athletics. Meeting pitch demand requires actions on a number of fronts and the SPS defined 5 main actions for the council to deliver; the actions are set out below as follows:

Increase maintenance of existing pitches to improve match play equivalents:
Following adoption of the strategy the Council has provided additional revenue budget to support these actions. The annual pitch maintenance budget 2024 is €409,000 which covers regular fortnightly maintenance and includes a sum of €150,000 for engagement of specialist contractors to do minor drainage improvements as well as goal mouth repairs and replacement of goal posts. SDCC manage regular grass cutting of pitches by direct labour. A sum of €250,000 has also been provided in 2024 which will facilitate an intensive upgrade of compacted, waterlogged pitches.

The Council’s Public Realm Section has in the past 5 to 7 years installed drainage systems on pitches in Tymon Park (4), Jobstown Park (1), Butler McGee Park (1), Clondalkin Park (1) and Ballymount Park (1). These schemes have been funded through a combination of sports capital funding as well as council own capital and revenue resources, with other funding where available.
A further 4 pitches have received sports capital funding, and these are under tender at present with plans to commence work on 2 of these pitches in late summer 2024. In addition to these; another 10 pitches have been included in the current sports capital funding application and a decision is awaited on these. The installation of such drainage schemes will improve waterlogging and playability issues on those pitches which require this level of intervention.

Develop a revised allocation policy; including pitch sharing and multipurpose use of facilities where appropriate:
In 2021, the Council introduced a new online Pitch Allocation and Booking system which went live for the 2021/2022 playing season. The South Dublin County Council’s Annual Allocation of Pitches/Sporting Facilities – Policy and Conditions can be found at www.sdcc.ie/bookapitch. Once clubs are allocated pitches via the online system they are given access to “Pitch Manager” software which enables the club to manage and record all activity on the pitches allocated to them.
The information allows SDCC gather valuable key data to better manage and maintain pitches against a scenario of growing demand. It will also help identity any pitches that are underused and provide more availability for pitch sharing etc.

Reserve ability to change the configuration of pitches:
This ability is built into the allocation policies, and pitches are swapped out as required/if appropriate. Flexibility in configuration/layout is provided as much as possible at the planning and design stage to future proof pitches to allow for changes as required.

Provide new grass pitches to meet capacity issues:
New grass pitches are planned and are under delivery/completed as set out below:

Dodder Valley Mt Carmel: (1 athletics track, 1 soccer pitch: Construction completed)
Adamstown SDZ parks: (1 cricket pitch complete at Airlie, 1 GAA-sized pitch complete at Tandy’s Lane Park)
Clonburris SDZ parks (1 soccer sized AGP, 5 soccer pitches planned)
Kiltipper Park Phase 2 (1 GAA sized pitch, 2 soccer pitches now funded, tender imminent)
Fortunestown area (2 pitches via development- built. Additional pitch included in 2023 P8 for Carrigmore Park)
Firhouse/Ballycullen area (1 GAA sized pitch-provided via development)
Rathcoole park: provision of a larger GAA sized pitch in conjunction with IW works-complete.
Rathcoole area in conjunction with GAA TBC.
Newcastle LAP area (1 small sized pitch-provided via development-built)

Provide Artifical Grass Pitches to augment long term capacity and meet training need:
At present; there is a council approved and funded 3G Artificial Grass Pitch Programme, based on the recommendations from the SPS and is agreed and underway. 2 No. artificial grass pitches have been delivered (at Airlie Park and Sean Walsh Park) as part of this programme of delivery, the other 3 no. required locations are in the west and east of the county and the new Strategic Development Zone area at Clonburris.

The SPS defined future locations of additional floodlit artificial grass pitches, as it provides evidence based upon local team usage and future team generation rates that would be the predominant users of the facility. The SPS demonstrates that there is a need to provide AGP’s as a vital asset to the local community in terms of a training and match-play facility for clubs, teams and others. The delivery of the SPS is reviewed on a regular basis and implementation is reported and discussed at the relevant SPC. Artificial grass pitches can support far more matches and training sessions compared to regular grass pitches and the sports pitch strategy recommends the provision of 5 No. pitches across the county to allow for an even distribution and facilitate use county-wide as set out above.