ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DUBLINOBSERVER.COM (2010-2012)
A petition from residents against an off-road cycle route went missing when it did not have the proper reference number on it.
Cllr Christy Burke (independent) asked at the monthly Dublin City Council meeting on Monday why a petition signed by “couple of hundred” residents went missing.
Burke said, “A couple of hundred objections from the residents from East Wall and West Road was not submitted to the objections to the planning department, there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding somewhere along the line.”
Council officials said that a petition from East Wall Residents Association went missing because it did not have the correct reference number on it.
“The petition from the East Wall Residents Association, what happened there, they had the incorrect planning reference number on it and that’s the reason why it inadvertently ended up not being considered in the processing of the application,” said Jim Keogan, executive manager of Dublin City Council’s Planning and Economic Development Department.
Cllr Emer Costello (Labour) asked for an undertaking from manager that no work take place on the cycle lane on West Road until further consultation taken place with the residents.
Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) said, “There are a lot of concerns on the East Wall about the proposal.”
Councillors are due to get an update at a local area meeting next week.
The removal of parking spaces on one side of West Road is seems to be the main concern of the residents, although, the city council previously said a survey of parking on the street found that most of the parking was commuter traffic.
Planning permission was already approved for the Dublin Canals Cycle Route project. Funding of €10m has been secured from the Department of Transport.
The 4.6km route from Rathmines to Fairview Park is a key section of planned cycle routes along both the Grand and Royal canals, and the Sutton to Sandycove route, mostly along Dublin Bay.
The route goes from the Rathmines Road at Portobello along the Grand Canal into the Docklands, it crosses the Liffey using the Samuel Beckett Bridge. From here it runs along the Royal Canal for a short distance before crossing the canal to the East Wall area to Fairview Park.
At Fairview Park the route meets the current off-road cycle path from the park to Bull Island. Meanwhile, at the other end of the route, a yet planned section will link to the recently opened Inchicore to Lucan greenway.
Elsewhere along the route, consultants RPS objected to the project on behalf of international property bank, Island Capital, because of removal of 26 on-street parking spaces and the proposed closing off to cars of an underpass at Grand Canal Quay.
Consultants Tiros Resocures for Charlemont Clinic and Charlemont Developments, also objected because of the loss of 40 parking spaces at Charlemont Mall impacting on parking for the clinic.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DUBLINOBSERVER.COM (2010-2012)