The National Transport Authority (NTA) has published a draft Cycle Network Plan for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) It is the most ambitious and comprehensive study ever undertaken of the matter and covers an area from Arklow to Dundalk along the coast and inland as far as Portlaoise, Mullingar and Virginia.
The main objective for this plan stems from the National Cycle Policy Framework’s commitment to ensuring that 10% of all journeys by 2020 will be by bicycle. This follows a concerted attempt by all government bodies and organizations to ensure that cycling as a transport mode is supported, enhanced and exploited, in order to achieve strategic objectives and reach national goals.
Three classes of cycleway are envisaged:
• An Urban Cycle Network, these cater for the main cycle arteries within the city centre, link principle and local zones and cycle routes within the local zones.
• The Inter-urban Cycle Network, connecting the urban cycle network routes (Light Blue lines on maps);
• The Green Route Network (Greenways), these predominately along the tourist/recreation routes providing for both leisure and commuter cycling.   

Supporters of the Sutton to Sandycove Promenade and Cycleway will be pleased to know that it is included in the last of these categories as the central section of a Greenway that extends from Dundalk to Arklow, almost all of it along the coast. The proposed route for the S2S in the urban area is also on the coast from Sutton to Fairview and from Sandymount to Dun Laoghaire. Instead of continuing to Sandycove however, it diverts inland along the line of the Metals (the original Dalkey rail line) and into Dalkey Village. This makes it easier to get continuity south to Killiney and on to Bray and Arklow. The plan does not preclude a short extension from Dun Laoghaire Harbour to Sandycove.

Unlike the recent proposal by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the clear objective of the NTA plan is to put the cycleway on the seafront outside the Dart Line. The initial environmental screening study notes however that there may be a conflict with the designation of South Dublin Bay as a Habitat for Birds and that a detailed Appropriate Assessment will be needed to finally ascertain whether it will be permitted in this location or not. This poses the biggest risk to the completion of the seafront promenade and cycleway as curreently envisaged.

Overall the plan is welcome and the Department of Transport and Tourism and the National Transport Authority should be commended for their work in preparing it. The next stage in the process will be of great significance in determining whether the S2S project will be completed or not.

The draft Plan and associated Strategic Environmental Assessment Report and Appropriate Assessment Reports can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.nationaltransport.ie/public-consultations/current/cycle-network/ 

Written submissions and observations can be submitted using the form on the opening page. All submissions must include the full name and address of the person making the submission and where relevant the name of the body or organization represented.
Closing date for all submissions in relation to all the relevant and supporting documents is Monday 14th October 2013 at 5pm.

For anyone interested in the S2S project, the debate at the June meeting of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council meeting is a must see.   There were excellent contributions from ten Councillors (all supporting the project and a response from the Manager explaining why there has been no progress with it.  For anyone who made a submission in relation to the Blackrock Area Plan, or is just interested in the project, it will be particularly interesting. 

The video recording of the meeting  can be found at the following address:

 http://www.dlrcoco.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/106207

Scroll down to about 2.12.00 (2 hours and 12 minutes into the meeting)  to see the full S2S debate from the beginning.

Just at the moment when Dublin City Council announce they are to proceed with the last remaining section of the S2S project on the Seafront at Dollymount in the North Dublin Bay,  Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) has announced that it plans to abandon the seafront location for the S2S in the South Dublin Bay.  It now plans to “re-route” it away from the seafront into Blackrock Park and on to the Merrion Road.  The new policy is set out in Section 9 of the recently published Draft Blackrock Local Area Plan.  If implemented, there will be no seafront walkway or cycleway between Sandymount and Dun Laoghaire.

Of the total 22 kms around Dublin Bay only 4 Kms is now missing on the available seafront and it is this section that DLRCC proposes to abandon. It is simply incredible that a vision which has such public support and in which so much time, effort and public money has been invested by the Department of Transport Trade and Tourism, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and the Dublin Transport Authority, the Dublin Regional Authority and (in former times) by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, can be destroyed by the actions of the officials in one local authority.  It should be noted that the majority of the Councillors in Dun Laoghaire have consistently supported the S2S project.

The “likely negative impact on the local habitats” is given as the reason for abandoning the seafront location and the re-routing of it into Blackrock Park (and then onto the Merrion Road).  Note that it is the “likely” impact on which the decision is made.  While it is acknowledged that The National Parks and Wildlife Service have expressed concern about the proposal, the process by which developments are determined to be acceptable or not, is clearly set out in the Habitats Directives. It requires a study called an Appropriate Assessment to be undertaken by the relevant Local Authority before a decision can be made as to whether a proposal can or cannot proceed.  No such Appropriate Assessment has been made by DLRCC and furthermore the Council officials have made it clear that they have no intention of undertaking one.  Instead, they rely on their judgement that the process is unlikely to succeed and therefore not worth starting.  Thus DLRCC is not only denying the community the right to have the matter formally assessed in accordance with the legislation, the Council has prejudged the outcome of such a study, significantly damaging the possibility of the matter receiving an impartial hearing.

What is even more frustrating in all of this is that DLRCC could just go ahead and do what they are proposing to upgrade the existing cycleway in Blackrock Park and around the Dart Station without any reference to the S2S project in the draft Blackrock Local Area Plan.  The fact that they have not done so but instead have stated that they are re-routing the S2S project inland, leads one to believe that their intention is not so much focussed on creating new facilities as stopping the S2S being completed on the seafront.  Adoption of the plan as drafted will prevent others who still believe in the vision and would wish to continue to seek solutions to the issues from doing so, destroying the hopes and aspirations other Government agencies and Local Authorities with a direct interest in the S2S project as well as the thousands of citizens who wish to see the S2S project proceed.

The S2S group has made a detailed submission to DLRCC in relation to the matter, a copy of which can be found here.

Any member of the public may make submissions to the Council and we earnestly request all those who feel strongly about the matter to do so. The closing date for submissions is the 20^th June 2013. Submissions and observations may be made in one of the following ways:-

1.Write to:

Senior Executive Officer,
Planning and Enterprise Department,
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council,
County Hall,
Marine Road,
Dun Laoghaire.

2.Email to:

blackrocklap@dlrcoco.ie

Note:

• Children, or groups or associations representing the interests of children, are entitled to make submissions or observations. (How many parents wish to allow their children to cycle on the Merrion Road?)
• All submissions and observations should include your name and a contact address and where relevant, details of any organisation, community group or company etc., which you represent.
• Please make your submission by one medium only, i.e. hard copy or e-mail.

Supporters who wish to contact us in connection with the issue may do so by e-mail to support@s2s.ie

Michael

It is just over 12 years since we started this campaign and while much has been achieved in getting the project acccepted by the numerous authorities that control such matters, nothing has happened “on the ground”  That is about to change.  Dublin City Coucil has completed the relevant process under the Planning Act and the Councillors have voted to proceed with the missing section at Dollymount.  More detail is available in earlier posts. Work will start this year and it is expected to be complete by next year.

In a related but unexpected announcement by Michael Philips, Dublin City Engineer, the Council has decided to move forward with the section of the S2S  from Fairview to Ringsend including  crossing the Liffey.  Let’s hope they can include a small pedestrian/cycle bridge linking Sir John Rogersons Quay to Ringsend, across the junction of the Dodder river with the Liffey.  What a difference that would make!

Dublin City Council officials and Councillors are to be congratulated on the positive actions they have taken to move the project forward.  They stand in stark contrast to the apathy that persists with officials in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, where a section of 4kms where there is no seafront walkway or cycleway remains to complete the 22Kms.

More information on the decision by Dublin City Council can be found in this article which appeard in the Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/councillors-approve-35m-plan-for-dublin-bikes-expansion-1.1392187