Herbert Park, one of the jewels in the Dublin 4 crown, has in recent years become the victim of an unintentional campaign of neglect. Largely a result of cutbacks and recessionary outcomes, the park has become a place that locals fear is quickly turning into a dumping ground and where residents can no longer feel safe walking through at night.
During the summer, the Donnybrook Residents Association held a meeting to talk over proposals to improve the current situation. These proposals include the replacement of railings on the Dodder Walk, where nearly half the trees along the bank have been cut in half, but the plan to complete the work has currently been put on hold.
The pond in the park is in a particularly dire state, despite Dublin City Council attempting to stem the level of filth by adding more clean water, due to the presence of a leak.
“There are loads of water rats in the pond,” Christy Doyle, Chairman of the DRA told NewsFour. “This is the state of the pond. They’ve done a lot of things that we’ve asked them to do but this is a problem that really needs to be tackled. It’s become a health and safety issue.”
Other proposals include the removal of trees and the bin from the children’s playground. There are also plans to bring back the two flower beds and the old arches, an area which once featured plant life from all over the world.
An increase in bins around the football pitches has also been requested and a call for more park rangers to patrol the park, as there is only one working there at present. Of further importance is the proposal of introducing security for closing and opening of gates in the park. The Bowling Club have also requested lighting on their all-weather pitch.
“The whole look of the park has gone down in the last 20 years,” Christy said. “People are putting dog mess into the bins in the playgrounds. If you want to break into a house all you need to do is hop over the wall. The park has become very unsafe for children, and everyone else.”
There has also been an influx of homeless people sleeping in the park and in one particularly extreme case, an assortment of machine gun bullets were found in a bush while schoolkids were conducting wildlife research.
The DRA agenda is to be presented to the Chairman of the Herbert Park Users Group on behalf of their residents, and they are hopeful that their councillors will get onboard with their agenda to improve the pastures of Herbert Park.
By Craig Kinsella
