Cllr asks if Strand Road cycleway judgment will be out “anytime this century”, officials have “no idea”

A Dublin City Council councillor asked tonight if there is any prospect that anybody will see the pending Strand Road cycleway judgment anytime soon, but an official said that council management is in the dark.

The route was proposed in 2020 to be implemented shortly afterwards, but just days before the work started, a High Court judge issued an injunction from the work going ahead after a case was taken Peter Carvill, for the Serpentine Avenue, Tritonville and Claremont Roads (STC) group, and Cllr Mannix Flynn (independent).

In July 2021, the judge ruled against the cycle route going ahead, a decision the council appealed.

In court, the Court of Appeal justices noted in the appeal case some flaws in the High Court judgment, including that evidence from Brendan O’Brien, head of the council’s transport department, that the trial was temporary was dismissed by the High Court without reason.

The legal team for STC was even offered the chance in court to cross-examine O’Brien.

Two of the three justices also verbally criticised the council for “poor administration practice”. But the written judgment has been pending since.

At Dublin City Council’s monthly meeting tonight, Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour) asked if there was any chance that the judgment would be issued “anytime this century”.

Brendan O’Brien, the head of the traffic and transport section of Dublin City Council, said he has “no idea” when the judgment will be issued. He noted that it is nearly two years since the Court of Appeal.

Last month, IrishCycle.com reported that transport Minister Eamon Ryan said that people were waiting “with absolute bated breath” for the judgment.

Minister Ryan said: “It’s two years we’ve been waiting for the judgement and, without going into the specifics of the case, I think there is a real issue in our planning and legal development system, legal planning system where the common good increasingly seems to be losing out to individual rights and/or to legal processes.”

“That applies to cycling, but the same applies in housing, energy and water [infrastructure], and in so many different aspects. There is a real concern. I think that our legal system is increasingly probably the main block to developing our local environment in a way that really promotes the common good,” he said as part of a wider interview.

Minister Ryan said: “And so that decision around the appeal is waited with absolute bated breath because we do have to resolve it. We can’t just leave it as is. In my mind, we can’t just say, ‘Well, we won’t do a Sutton to Sandycove route’ or ‘We’ll just do a bit from the northside to the northside and the southside to southside, but we’ll forget the middle’.”

“I think the reason the outgoing government really focused on the Planning and Development Bill and it was the most important piece of legislation we had, is to try to start addressing some of these legal challenges we have and some people,” he said.

On the wider issue of fear of legal changes, Minister Ryan added: “Our entire system is now paying consultants small fortunes to write massive reports that wouldn’t be needed in other jurisdictions but are needed here to protect against legal risk.”


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