SDCC to bypass local councillors in effort to rush through development plan for Lucan Village

Lucan Village Business and Services Group

Response to Revised Proposals for Part 8 Development of Lucan Village Green and Main St.

The Lucan Village Business and Services Group is shocked and deeply disappointed to learn that the revised Part 8 Proposed development for Lucan Village Green and Main St. will be brought straight to a vote of the entire SDCC Chamber on Monday 11th April.

Although it is an established norm for a Part 8 proposal of this nature to firstly be debated and amended by the Local Area Committee of 10 local councillors, on this occasion the CEO has decided to bypass the Local Area Committee and bring the revised proposals straight to a vote of the entire Chamber of all 40 Councillors.

We feel it is extremely inappropriate and very unusual that SDCC Councillors, many of whom would have no prior knowledge of these proposals, would be presented with the CEO’s 27-page report on Wednesday 6th April and asked to vote on the revised proposals only 3 working days later on Monday 11th April, without first benefitting from the prior reaction of the Local Area Committee to the revised proposals.

In terms of the CEO’s report and the revised proposals (attached), we have the following initial observations:

1. The initial proposals received an unprecedent level of objection with 7,317 submissions. Only 71 submissions (less than 1%) were in favour of the initial plans as they stood.

2. Ultimately the revised proposal differs only slightly from the original part 8 proposal, with just x1 net extra parking space being delivered in the revised proposal.

3. We note that the CEO does not respond to concerns raised about the lack of regular parking prior to 11am when all regular spaces on Main St. will be designated as loading bays. This mean the No. of regular spaces on Main St. before 11am will be reduced from 37 to Zero spaces. The safety and planning concerns over many of the proposed additional spaces have also not been properly addressed by the CEO.

4. It is clear to us that adequate regard has not been paid to the many thousands of unique written submissions received during the consultation period. We note that concerns raised by all 3 churches in the village, regarding parking availability for weddings and funerals, have not been responded to by the CEO. We can only imagine that many other significant and insightful submissions were also simply ignored in an effort to expedite the planning process.

5. The multiple glaring inaccuracies in SDCC’s parking data have been completely glossed over in the CEO’s report. The CEO has doubled down on SDCC’s erroneous assertion that there are 225 regular parking spaces in Lucan Village. He neglects to mention that 23 of these spaces are located at Lucan Demesne, a carpark located approximately 1km from the Village Centre. The CEO also says there is additional nearby private parking “accessible to the public“ but doesn’t elaborate further. If the CEO is aware of such a carpark, we’d love to know about it.

6. The case studies presented by the CEO as a rebuttal to the Economic Impact Study carried out by Dr. Pat McCloughan (attached) all involve towns/cities with existing first class frequent public transport links (bus and rail) as well as multiple existing nearby public and private carparks (usually shopping centres). Significantly not a single case study bears any resemblance to the situation in Lucan Village, where no alternative carpark exists and public transport (bus only) is infrequent and generally regarded as substandard.

In conclusion, the Lucan Village Business and Services Group believes the revised proposals are essentially the same as the initial proposals and therefore fall well short of meeting the parking requirements of local residents, churches, healthcare providers, sports clubs and businesses.

We believe that the wishes expressed in the 7,000+ submissions received by SDCC (an unprecedented volume by the Council’s own admission) should be respected. For this reason, we are calling on all SSCC councillors to reject the revised plans in their current format.

We are also calling on anyone who feels strongly about these plans to make contact with any SDCC councillor they know and appeal to them to reject the plans in their current format. We are particularly eager to reach councillors not located in the Lucan area, who may not have any knowledge whatsoever of these plans. To their credit, most of the 10 Councillors on the Local Area Committee are up to speed on these plans and have a good idea which way they’ll be voting on Monday. It’s the other 30 councillors we really need to reach at this stage. If anyone has any personal connection to any of these councillors and would be willing to make an introduction, please let us know ASAP.

Finally, the full chamber meeting where the vote will take place kicks off at 3.30 pm on Monday 11th and the discussion about the Development of Lucan Village Green and Main St is likely to commence around 4.15pm approx. We would encourage as many people as possible to register to attend the session remotely. Please email meetingsadmin@sdublincoco.ie and request remote access to the meeting. We’ll see you there!

Yours

LVBSG Committee

Download

01a Lucan Village Green and Main Street Part 8 report

.pdf

Download PDF • 349KB

Appendix B PMCA Report on Lucan Village (030322) Final

.pdf

Download PDF • 524KB