— Residents say “destroying” planned greenway route isn’t required for Garda building.
Campaigners are asking people to sign a petition to save the planned River Camac Greenway link between the River Liffey / Heuston station and the Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) at the Royal Kilmainham Hospital.
The deadline for submissions on the planning application for the Garda Operations Centre is this Monday, February 12.
The Garda Operations Centre on Military Road is to house specialised Garda units like the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the Garda Cyber Crime Bureau and the Emergency Response Unit. It is to replace the current Garda Operations Center at Harcourt Street.
The greenway route is included in the Dublin City Development Plan and is also part of the NTA’s Greater Dublin Area cycle network plan. It is seen as a key link away from the heavy traffic on main roads in the area.
It would help link the Liffey Cycle Route with the Irish Museum of Modern Art on grounds of the Royal Kilmainham Hospital and onto Kilmainham Gaol.
On Rivercamacgreenway.com, Campaigners for the route wrote: “Because this is a Garda station Garda station the plans are not freely available online like they are for normal planning applications. You can only view the plans under supervision at the OPW offices on St. Stephen’s Green. (Honestly this was a weird experience. We were watched by OPW staff as we inspected the plans).”
“The problem with this development is that they are building on top of the River Camac Greenway route. It is completely unnecessary to build over the greenway. The proposed building only covers one third of site. The proposal could easily be changed to leave space for the proposed greenway.”
The group added: “Many of us who live on Military Road are supportive of the Garda station development in principle. Many of us want to see this derelict site be redeveloped. However, we are angry that the greenway will never be built if this Garda station is approved without changes. The current plans must be changed.”
The group are asking people to sign their petition on Uplift.ie and see Rivercamacgreenway.com for other ways to act to save the greenway.
IMAGE: An extract from the GDA Cycle Network.
Hey I’m from the campaign and first I want to say thank-you for spreading the word.
There is one thing we’d love all supporters of the greenway to do. We need just two minutes of your time save the greenway route forever.
We need you to write a submission to OPW using our template. Planning submissions are the only thing that planners can consider before they decide if they give OPW planning permission or not. The planners can force OPW to change their plans to protect the greenway route forever. Your submissions will convince the planners to do just that.
You don’t have to live in the area to send in a submission. Anyone can send one in. Using our template you can do a submission in under two minutes. (Seriously we timed ourselves)
https://www.rivercamacgreenway.com/submission-template
Signing the petition is a great first step and has helped us get local politicians motivated. But to convince the planners we must send in submissions.
are they really going to build over the greenway?