— “‘Justifiable need for the connection route at Ayrfield Drive based on the level of car dependency within the area,” the planning inspector said.
A TD for Dublin Bay North who previously used Dail speaking time to speak against a basic permeability measure has now also raised the issue using a parliamentary question.
The permeability measure is planned as part of the Clongriffin Core Bus Corridor infrastructure changes as part of BusConnects — namely, a new pedestrian and cycling link from the Malahide Road into a small green area along Ayrfield Drive.
Permeability is a key factor in making sustainable transport more attractive. However, currently, a nearly 2-km continuous barrier of walls blocks access to the Ayrfield estate from the Malahide Road side.
The new opening would give more direct access to the high-frequency bus routes which use the Malahide Road and more direct walking and cycling access to workplaces and shops.
An Bord Pleanála approved the project, but progress on the route — including continued consultation with residents — is currently on pause because of a Judicial Review by a resident over the location of a bus stop on another part of the route.
In a parliamentary question, TD Denise Mitchell (Sinn Fein) said: “To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the engagement his Department or the National Transport Authority has had with the residents of Ayrfield, Dublin 13, in relation to the proposed BusConnects plan which would see the removal of a section of the estate boundary wall between Ayrfield Drive and the Malahide Road”.
She also asked: “If the Minister is aware of the serious safety concerns which have been raised by residents that the removal of this wall between the residential estate and a large main road would pose to children; the actions the Minister or the NTA is proposing to address those concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
The parliamentary answer was published just before the change of Government and, so, the reply was in the name of the previous minister, Eamon Ryan.
The reply said: “As the Deputy may be aware, BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State, and is managed by the National Transport Authority (NTA).”
The specific issue which the Deputy has raised relates to the Clongriffin Core Bus Corridor (CBC) and proposals for a pedestrian/cycle connection which is planned to provide direct access for the residents of the Ayrfield estate to the bus service on the Malahide Road.
The reply by then Minister Ryan said: “I understand that the NTA met with a delegation of the residents in July 2022, following the submission of the Clongriffin CBC to An Bord Pleanála to discuss concerns related to the proposal. The NTA committed to further discussion regarding the final details of the link design following a decision by the Board.”
“The issue of connection route at Ayrfield Drive was also subject to a number of submissions and considered by An Bord Pleanála as part of its review of the Clongriffin CBC planning application, with the inspector noting that there is a ‘justifiable need for the connection route at Ayrfield Drive based on the level of car dependency within the area’,” he said.
The reply said that the inspector also concluded that there had been extensive public consultation on the proposed changes.
Minister Ryan said: “The Clongriffin CBC received planning approval in January 2024, and Judicial Review proceedings have been commenced seeking to quash An Bord Pleanála’s approval of the project by a resident in a different area of the scheme on a matter unrelated to Ayrfield Estate.”
“Due to those proceedings, the scheme is currently paused. The consultation with the residents in relation to the scheme details is also paused pending the outcome of the (separate) Judicial Review proceedings,” he said.
He added that he also referred the issue for reply to the NTA.
As IrishCycle.com previously reported, the NTA told the planning inspector that the proposal to remove a section of the wall will bring a total of 619 properties within a 400-800m catchment to bus stops. If the link was omitted, the scheme would only add 35 units to this catchment.
A measurement tool in Google Maps puts the current walk from within the Ayrfield estate to the proposed bus stops on the Malahide Road and the shops across the road at a distance of around 1.3km — a 17 minutes walk or a 6 minutes cycle with awkward turns on main roads. Other bus stops would be around 900m-1km away.
The An Bord Pleanála inspector’s report said that of the 64 submissions raising concerns about the proposed new pedestrian/cyclist link from Ayrfield Drive to Malahide Road, 58 were from residents of the Ayrfield estate, and six were from elected representatives supporting the residents.
The inspector wrote: “In response to the contentions that the need for the new link was not investigated fully, the NTA state that CSO data show that Ayrfield has the highest car mode share for travel to work trips at 62%. In addition, this mode share exceeds the average mode share for County Dublin as a whole.”
They continued: “There is a continuous boundary wall along the Malahide Road at this estate. Data suggests that areas of higher permeability have higher bus usage. It is considered that the boundary wall acts as a deterrent to achieving the required mode shift away from private car use.”
The NTA told the planning inspector that the “significant improvement” to the walking, cycling and bus facilities would reduce demand for car use and “that improved accessibility is also expected to increase social cohesion within the local community.”
The authority pointed out that the proposal for the new pedestrian and cyclist link supports elements of international policy, European Union (EU) law and policy, national policy, regional policy and local policy.
The NTA added that the plan is supported by the National Sustainable Mobility Policy, the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Street and the National Disability Authority’s ‘Building for Everyone: A Universal Design Approach’ with regards to catering for all users, including those with disabilities.
I am 87 years of age and live near the bottom of Ayrfield Road.
I no longer drive and travel by bus at least three times per week (More during the summer time) so I am very excited at the prospect of this bus route coming into my estate as I will also feel safer coming home from town in the evening.
Judicial reviews don’t come cheap. Also, what children? That area is a very mature area with mostly elderly people. They could get far better value from their bus passes than they will in a car
Absolute nonsense. I live on Ayrfield Drive, a quiet cul de sac and there are circa 20 young children living within 30 meters of the proposed breach of the wall which will lead onto a major arterial traffic route. Facts are important.
Unless 20 young children live in numbers 45 and 47 Ayrfield Drive, then it’s pretty unlikely there are 20 within 30 metres of the “breach”. Funny how facts are important, I looked at the 2022 CSO data for Ayrfield Drive and can see that out of the ca.640 living on the ENTIRE Drive, only 57 were aged 10 or younger, whereas over a third (200) of the residents are 60 or over.
There is a time-honoured tradition in Ireland of making grossly exaggerated statements about anything related to change.
There is also a long tradition of building permeable entry and exit points from housing estates onto busy roads. Where I grew up, to get to the bus was a 10 minute walk to a gap in a wall to one of the busiest dual carriageways in the city. It’s actually 35 metres wide, 6 lanes in width if I include the two bus lanes and the 2 x 2 carriageways. Nobody died from having the gap, no accidents or otherwise – there’s even a bike track that annoyingly shares the footpath in front of the gap and runs beside the bus lane in each direction, houses actually face DIRECT onto the main road to the left and right of the gap in the wall, which leads to a tree-lined cul de sac that I walked down to get the bus from.
What is there in the gap is a hit-and-miss metal barrier, so perhaps the 58 people out of the ca.600 living in Ayrfield Drive (assuming the 58 even live on the road) there could suggest some form of commonly-used safety feature rather than the ridiculous course of action of lobbying politicians.
The fact is, living in or near a busy road is completely normal. In fact, most of the Malahide Road itself is lined with houses directly fronting onto it, probably with children living in many of them. Newtown Cottages, right outside Ayrfield, is one example, but also pretty much everything south of the Artane roundabout. Absolutely standard in Dublin. Living in a walled-off housing estate isn’t the default, nor is it the only solution to keep children safe.
Disappointing to see “think of the children” demagoguery hold back progress to (ironically) safer modes of transport. Those kids would probably benefit from having fewer cars zooming about the estate. The section in question of the Malahide Road is a completely featureless, continuous dual carriageway on each side, although I haven’t noticed really bad speeding there, counterintuitively. If residents feel that it’s unsafe, then measures should be taken to make it safer rather than walling an entire community off.
With that said… the article points out that “58 [complaints to An Bord Pleanála] were from residents of the Ayrfield estate”, and part of her job is to represent and amplify the voices of those in her constituency. I don’t think it’s right to frame it as if Denise Mitchell is on a personal crusade against buses, cycling and walking. The title of this article feels misleading and a bit unfair in that regard.
Hi Oisín, it’s a TD’s choice what voices they “represent and amplify” — whether it’s people happy with the status quo or, like another commenter, those who want or indeed need more direct access to their local bus routes.
If TDs are pushing against basic sustainable transport measures, it’s IrishCycle.com’s job to highlight this, and this website has taken the same approach for some time.
The opening paragraphs make it clear what the single basic permeability measure is. The TD’s name isn’t, in this case, even mentioned until the 7th paragraph (which is longer than normal for this site) — so, any reader who finds out the TD’s name first will see what the article is about.
There’s nothing in the article about anybody being on a general or wider “personal crusade against buses, cycling and walking” and the article like the previous one on this subject, includes how other politicians have also worked against this planned measure. But if you raise an issue in the Dail and via a PQ, you are likely to get more focus on you — that’s kind of the point of it.
There’s a general idea out there that people on “crusades” hold back active travel and public transport, but, in my experience, it’s people in the centre who hold back progress on sustainable transport and liveable cities. People who are somewhere between generally or notionally supportive — they listen to the loud voices who don’t want change for one reason or another rather than showing leadership.
I hope that helps explain my position.
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I live in the estate on the drive. I cycle and I use the bus and have 2 young children.
I can absolutely say this Will effect the area. Its very easy to pass comment on an area which you do not live in and simply have no understanding of.
Yes it is a mature estate but there are also a high level of children as well as a school. It is safe because we know the people coming and going, there is no need to come into Ayrfield unless you know someone there, opening it to a bus stop to suit an agenda and therefore creating a “park and ride” while removing children’s playing space creates a safety issue.
If you bought a home in an estate which is open to a dual carriageway or grew up there that was your choice or perhaps you know no different than that but that was not the case for people who chose to live in ayrfield. Families chose Ayrfield because its quiet and safe.