'What is the point' - Council accused of ignoring public on Dundalk's mobility hubs
Dundalk councillors voted to scrap five locations from the proposed 41 mobility hubs across Dundalk and Blackrock
Dundalk councillors have accused Louth County Council of ignoring the concerns of the public as they voted to remove five sites from Louth County Council’s planned mobility hub pilot.
Councillors scrapped sites across Dundalk and Blackrock citing a variety of reasons, from parking to antisocial behaviour.
The pilot, which had included 41 sites across Dundalk and Blackrock, aims to give people access to shared mobility services such as e-bikes, e-scooters, and electric vehicles (EV).
The project went before councillors for approval at the May meeting of the Dundalk Municipal District.
Councillors voted to remove sites including hubs in Fatima Park/Bellewsbridge Road, Cluan Enda- St Alphonsus Road, Park View/Park Villas as well as two in the Blackrock area at the seaside and St Fursey’s Terrace.
As part of the consultation process, members of the public could make submissions to have their say on the planned project.
In total, there were 120 submissions made as part of the process, of which 101 were made by residents of Fatima estate off the Bellewsbridge Road.
Fianna Fáil councillor Seán Kelly told the meeting it appeared that Louth County Council had “just not paid any attention to” the residents’ submissions.
“Fatima is an estate of 140 houses, there are a number of houses for sale in that area and there a number of houses vacant. The very fact that 101 houses in that estate made objections to this is because they’ve said there’s too much going on in the area.”
Cllr Kelly said it seemed like the residents of the estate had “been completely ignored”.
“What is the point of public consultations if we’ve got such a volume of consultation and we’re not going to pay any attention to it? I get that you’ve responded to it. But it just seems like what the residents raised concerns about has been completely ignored,” he said.
The residents of Fatima Park raised concerns that the consultation process had been “inadequate” and that the installation of a mobility hub in the estate would “fundamentally change the residential character of the estate”.
The submissions noted that “Fatima Estate is a quiet, long-established residential area with elderly residents and young families”.
The residents were concerned about “antisocial behaviour, loitering, noise, and intimidation, particularly outside commuting hours” and said they had not demonstrated “local demand”.
There were fears the new hub “would worsen congestion, parking pressure and road safety risks” particularly for children and the elderly.
Fine Gael councillor John Reilly warned that there are parking issues in the estate “on a normal day”.
“You’re talking about a 1950s estate and roads are quite narrow on it. There was an issue with emergency services going in and there’s already a problem there with congestion and parking,” he said.
Cllr Reilly also said there is “pandemonium there every day for about 15 or 20 minutes” due to school buses.
Councillors also voted to scrap hubs in Cluan Enda and Park View/Park Villas.
Independent councillor Maeve Yore said Cluan Enda is an “elderly estate” and said residents had been in touch with her as they were unsure how to make submissions for the consultation.
“They’ve contacted me and I’m sure they’ve contacted others to say they don’t want it,” she said.
However, Mr Jones warned councillors against removing too many locations and said the scheme could be forfeited as a result.
“If there was a high number of locations removed, I would be at that point advising members that that would forfeit the scheme. Because that’s not what’s being presented, it’s not in the spirit of the scheme and it’s not what we’ve been funded to do by the NTA”.
“The team will explain why there are so many locations to make the model work, we haven’t just come up with 41 for the heck of it. There’s 41 to maximise the spirit of the scheme,” he said.
Despite concerns with specific locations, councillors overwhelmingly welcomed the pilot.
Louth County Council also stressed that there is also a second phase that will be brought before councillors for approval if phase one is successful.
The Council said it had identified over 90 sites before finalising the proposed sites.
A spokesperson for the local authority said the local authority has been engaging with private owners for potential phase two sites.
The Council said the IDA Science and Technology Park is “pretty keen to buy in” as is the Dundalk Retail Park.
The spokesperson said Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) have also identified sites and said “they want more”. He added that DkIT plans to include EV cars in their hubs.
The Council also confirmed it had identified Clarke Railway Station as a potential location but said the “NTA (National Transport Authority) want to deal with that holistically as part of their own pilot project”.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.