Council and Elected Representative to Meet Regarding Sea Wall

*The following is a statement from the Clontarf Residents' Association*

Wall Height at St. Anne’s Park

We have been inundated with expressions of concern via Email, FaceBook and Twitter at the height of the wall currently being constructed at the St. Anne’s section of Clontarf Road.  We have raised the matter with Dublin City Council and our elected representatives and as a result a special information has been arranged for the Dublin North Central Councillors for 5^th November next to discuss the matter.

This is an ‘Information Meeting’ only where the Council officials will explain the situation to our elected representatives.  Some of the questions that have been raised by Councillor Sean Haughey are as follows:

• When will the works stop for the Winter and when will they start again - timescale for the works?
• Height of wall, blocked views, the need to reduce this height?
• The colour and façade of the wall?
• Has sea flooding ever been recorded at this location?
• Residents of 350 + Clontarf Road - The need for parking on Dollymount Avenue, relocation of bus stop and proposed build-outs?
• The old tram shelter?
• Parking for businesses at 318-328 Clontarf Road?

 We are aware that all our local Councillors are very concerned about this issue and Councillor Damian O’Farrell has attempted to change this meeting from an information one to one where the Councillors can actually have an impact and make a decision on the wall but this has been resisted at last Monday’s Area Committee Meeting.

 We know that all our local Councillors are as unhappy as we are with the height as it currently is and we urge anyone who is concerned to contact your elected representatives as soon as possible.  The sooner you do this the better as they all need to be aware of the feeling on the ground before the meeting on 5^th November.

Several residents have asked us if we were aware of the potential height before the works commenced.  The answer is that we were told that the new wall would not be higher than the stone wall at the entrance to the Bull Wall.  At the time this seemed reasonable but what we were not told clearly is that the measurement of the height was not from road level but from sea level.

This difference of emphasis is what has caused the current problem and we would suggest that rather than giving us height measurements for the rest of the wall up to the Bull Bridge, a series of temporary levels should be put in place along the existing wall so that residents are aware of the possible heights along the rest of the works.

Another thing that contributes to the aspect of the wall is that along that stretch of Clontarf Road the road is considerably lower than the rest of Clontarf Road.  There is a proposal to raise the road at this point but only by two inches so it will not really make any difference to the view for motorists.

 We are attaching a list of email addresses for all Councillors in the Dublin North Central area plus those of our three local T.D.s.  Our suggestion is, if you are contacting any of these representatives, that you copy every one of them so that they will all be aware of your feelings in advance of the meeting. It would be good if you also copy Clontarf Residents’ Association as well so that we will have a record of all the communications

 Obviously we will be emailing them also but the more people who contact them the better.