STC (Serpentine Ave, Tritonville and Claremont Road) residents group in Sandymount has welcomed the High Court decision preventing Dublin City Council from proceeding with the Strand Road Trial Cycle Route Scheme as planned and the closure of the north-bound traffic lane on Strand Road. This application was brought by local resident Peter Carvill and Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn.
The group argued that the proposed scheme would have resulted in major changes to traffic patterns in the Sandymount and wider areas, eliminating north-bound vehicular traffic on Strand and Beach Road, with serious implications for residents, businesses, schools and sports clubs in the Dublin 4 vicinity.
An STC Group spokesperson commented: “Local residents welcome this decision. We now urge Dublin City Council to invest effort into putting in place an off-road cycle track of the type envisaged by the original S2S (Sutton to Sandycove) cycleway proposal which has been in existence for many years. An emergency motion was passed at the Dublin City Council South East Area meeting last January, calling on Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to revive the 2015 plan to construct a cycle path on a boardwalk over the sea side of Strand Road in Sandymount. We call on DCC to do this.
“Sandymount is pro-cycling and we welcome improved cycling infrastructure in our village. What we did not want was significant traffic displacement in the Sandymount area, rendering other, smaller roads busier and causing increased risks for pedestrians, children and local cyclists. The DCC proposal would have brought this about.”
Carvill commented: “It was regrettable we had to go to the High Court but notwithstanding this we would sincerely ask that DCC re-engage with the NTA and Minister Ryan and most importantly the local communities in this proposal, the residents of Sandymount, Ringsend, Irishtown and Ballsbridge to revisit the original S2S cycle path proposal so it can be enjoyed by everyone including visitors to our wonderful capital City.”
Image courtesy Irish Times.
