Drawing of proposed plan for site, from Douglas (Carson & Crushell Architects) via Cork Street Park @ Facebook.
A campaign is underway to help convince the Dublin City Council Economic Development Department to turn a derelict Chamber Street site, in Dublin 8, into a public park for all of the community.
Rebecca Moynihan, a Labour Councillor for the area, along with Councillors from other party’s, have come together to try to turn this idea into a realty, and a petition has been set up on Change.org to gather some public support. There is also a separate group operating a Facebook page which is campaigning for the redevelopment of this plot of land, into recreational use. You can view their Facebook page here.
The Economic Development Department of the Dublin City Council will no doubt be keeping an eye on that petition, which currently has well over 700 signatories, so if you want to add your voice to this debate, you can simply sign the petition, or leave a comment too if you wish!
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Here is the text from the campaign on Change.org. If you sign the petition, your name will be added to this letter, and forwarded to Dublin City Council’s Economic Development Department:
Compared to other areas within the city Dublin 8 suffers from an unacceptable lack of green space and parks for a young population. When you compare South West Inner City with our neighbours in the South East Inner City area, there is 14 times more green space for a similar population.
In the Dublin City Council 2013 budget there is a provision of €75,000 for recreational facilities in Dublin 8. The Chamber St Site off Cork St has been lying derelict since the flats were knocked down which would provide a perfect area for a park. The site has been used as a temporary circus but a park would fit perfectly in with the successful allotments, which are operating on another portion of the old site.
Under the Liberties Local Area Plan the land is zoned Z4 ‘to provide for and improve mixed service facilities’ but most of the provisions of this plan haven’t been implemented due to lack of funding. The council could amend this zoning to designate the site as a recreation area.
The site has been signed over by the housing section in Dublin City Council to the economic development department who want to put it out for expressions of interest for re-development. We already have an overabundance of housing in Dublin 8, with no green space for the children living there. The council also owns a number of other sites/property in the area which they could put out for expressions of interest, so there is no need for them to develop the Chamber st site at the expense of a community amenity.
The area councillors in a motion submitted by Cllr Rebecca Moynihan have agreed that the site should be used as a park.
I call on Dublin City Council to provide much needed recreation space for Dublin 8 on the Chamber St site to benefit the whole community.
Here is a video which OutdoorCommunity.ie and South West Inner City Network (SWICN) produced and published recently. It features a ‘Family Adventure Weekend’ held on the wasted land. For a matter of hours the plot was given some much needed life, when it was transformed into a positive recreational facility for all to enjoy.
The importance of parks to the quality of life within cities is appreciated far and wide, and is backed up by research. There is evidence of better academic performance in schools that have outside classroom gardens, and studies at Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York City have revealed increased patient recovery rates in beds that overlook the Central Park!
Dublin City Council has not provided a permanent new public park for the city in almost a generation. In all the years of the boom not one substantial open public space was built to provide this vital amenity to inner-city dwellers. The best planned cities in the world have beautiful, open, accessible, spaces and many of them. They realise how vital they are to city dwellers, tourists and visitors. Now is DCCs opportunity to reverse some of the appalling damage done by developments over the last decades and to plan parks and open space amenities. The Cork Street area appears to be in dire need of a facility like this and we would like to add our voice in support of their project.
In my twelve years of living in Dublin I have lived in almost every ‘bad’ area in the city – even in a tiny flat directly above the off-licence in Dolphins Barn. That little flat was a utopia compared to living on Cork St. It is frequented by THE most threatening gangs of youths in the entire city. Building a park here would just be a lovely scenic space for them to grace with their constant presence. I could not think of a worse area in all of Dublin to suggest the building of a new park. Go ahead. Buil it and they will come. Then you’ll see.
Derelict site = injuries = irresponsible = bad
Park = healthy = social = good.
DCC, you don’t actually need rocket science to make that one go.
Brian
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