COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN / PALMERSTOWN / NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

MOTION NO.14

MOTION: Councillor L. O'Toole

I propose that the Chief Executive (CE) provide a statement on the current distribution of depots within South Dublin County Council (SDCC) and address the notable absence of a depot in the Lucan area.

According to a recent report on depot locations (see attached), there are several depots distributed across the county to serve various regions. However, it is observed that Lucan, which has experienced substantial population growth and the development of new parks and amenities, does not currently have a dedicated depot. Given the increasing demands on local services, it is crucial to address this shortfall. Establishing a depot in Lucan would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and maintenance in the area, thereby supporting the needs of our expanding community.

I request that the CE assess the need for a depot in Lucan and explore the necessary planning and implementation strategies to address this gap. This motion seeks to ensure that Lucan's infrastructure is aligned with its growing demands and supports its development adequately.

REPORT:

The Council engaged a specialist consultancy service to carry out a detailed strategic review of it's operational depots in 2018/'19 and this resulted in a depot rationalisation plan being drafted and agreed with affected operational staff.  The review aimed to assess how depot services could be optimised to meet the needs of the county, now and into the future. This included consideration of factors such as population growth, travel times between depots, infrastructure expansion, and the efficient use of existing property. While the report explored various options, including localised depots, it placed a particular focus on the development of a new main depot built to contemporary standards to support county-wide service delivery. Based on the review, the development of Deansrath depot as a main depot has been identified.  Although the growing needs of the Lucan area are recognised, the review concluded that the existing distribution of depots, combined with the planned reorganisation of services is sufficient to meet the current and anticipated demands of the area. Therefore, the establishment of an additional depot dedicated solely to Lucan is not considered necessary at this time. The forthcoming completion of the depot reorganisation will ensure that all areas of South Dublin, including Lucan, continue to be adequately serviced in an efficient and sustainable manner.  The Council remains committed to monitoring service requirements across the county, and Lucan's infrastructure needs will continue to be reviewed as part of our ongoing planning efforts.

The review of depots recommended, among other things, that the number of depots would reduce from 12 at the time to 7 and that some of the larger depots where space was underutilised would be consolidated.  In this regard Tymon depot has now taken staff from Sean Walsh depot and Rathfarnham depot, enabling the former to be used for age friendly housing and the latter to be included in a tourism development proposal around Rathfarnham Castle.  It is intended that Deansrath depot will take staff from the Grange public realm depot and this move is imminent as the Grange depot lands are required for the Clonburris Strategic Development Zone project.   The depot review did not envisage the development of any additional depots due mostly to the scarcity of land in the county and the need to make land available for other pressing uses particularly housing.  It was also felt that a number of existing depots were underutilised and could take more staff. The review also considered the issues of travel distances and times and in a very small county these were not considered to be significant.  With regard to Lucan and Adamstown it should be noted that Lucan Village is approximately 7km from Deansrath depot while Adamstown is between 4 and 5km, this is similar to Tymon depot where Tallaght Village is between 4 and 5km away while Rathfarnham Village is 7km away.