My Comments

Uimhir Thagarta Uathúil:

FIN-C532-37

Stádas:

Submitted

Údar:

Louise Waters

Comhairliúchán:

Proposed Material Alterations to the Draft Fingal Development Plan 2023-2029

Líon na ndoiciméad faoi cheangal:

Teorainneacha Gafa ar an léarscáil:

Níl

Údar:

Louise Waters

Tráchtanna

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.2

Regarding amendment 6.2, i have serious concerns with the following

'It also includes demand management and behavioural change measures to manage daily travel demand more efficiently and to reduce the journeys taken by private car.'

As a resident in fingal, i absolutely object to unelected council officials dictating and interfering with what mode of transport people can choose from when and where. Is the council adding this amendment because they are embarassed that the majority of the public are not using your silly cycle lanes? So now you want to force people off the road in order to use your cycle lanes?

What are these demand managements? What are these behavioural change measures? Who gave you the authority to reduce journeys taken by private car? In the 2019 local elections nowhere was it stated that the council was going to begin dictating what mode of transport people can use.

Is the council going to send their staff to every estate in fingal and block their driveways in order to prevent journeys from private vehicles? Serious 1984 dystopian vibes happening here!

I will always use my private car for whatever journey i like. I will take the bus when i want to. It is not up to the council to make these decisions for us. Sorry to break the news for you but i am not getting soaked waiting for the bus with 5 shopping bags! I will be using my car and your active travel department will not stop me or anyone else from doing so.

The council is seriously overstepping the mark from being a local authority to becoming a nanny state forcing us what to do and act.

The private car is the reason why people live and work in fingal! Without it, fingal would probably be the poorest local authority due to its spatial and geographical locations, attracting absolutely nobody!

If the council is to proceed with this amendment i will not be complying and will continue to choose what mode of transport suits me best. It is not any of your concerns.

As i am tying this, its around 4pm, dark and cold and here is the council trying to stop people from driving by any means necessary. Seriously out of touch with reality.

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.3

It's important to remember that you can put private vehicles last all you want, you still need to cater to the majority of us by any means such as improving junctions for increase capacity, reducing congestion at blackspots, new roads etc. Putting private vehicles last does not mean you can forget about that mode of transport when it comes to infrastructure.

Council talks about economic development in the same sentence, the same ecomonic development that has been created due to the private car both by residents and people working here. Let's not forget about that especially now since the council has gone full on anti private vehicles thanks to some unelected council officials.

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.5

All such measures shall be discussed with local residents and the opinions and views of local residents must be respected and noted. The opinions of local residents are more important than the opinions of unelected urban designers that drew up the 'dmurs' document and any such proposals must have approval from local residents or the council shall face full scrutiny and loss of money and time wasted from not consulting with local residents beforehand.

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.11

I fully agree with this paragraph. We are lucky in fingal to be served by high quality road infrastructre that has had a positive impact on the economy which is why i am confused that the council wants to dictate residents in fingal by preventing us from driving private vehicles. 'Reduce' is a sugarcoated word when in reality you want to limit journeys by private vehicle. Nobody in fingal was asked if we support that.

What is the point of having excellent road infrastructure when your stated goals is to prevent people from driving vehicles by any means necessary?

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.13

Again, any proposals shall be consulted and discussed with LOCAL residents and the views and opinions of residents shall be respected.

LOCAL residents is highlighted as there are some people that like to comment on schemes that they dont live near such as several lobby groups examples 'Fingal Active Travel' 'Dublin Cycling Campagin' etc. (made up organistations that anyone can make up should not have their opinions taken seriously over those that live in the area)

The views and opinions of people that live in the area are more important than those that try and hijack consultations from different parts of the country as that has been happening all over dublin and the rest of the country and people are starting to notice this as well.

I have serious concerns with the active travel department (unelected by the way and members of your active travel team are on twitter retweeting and liking tweets that contain anti private car sentiment which i have several screenshots and so do other residents.) having control over the road network and any such proposals should be discussed with local councillors and the local traffic engineers etc. Some members of the active travel team are new and want to un-do work carried out by past traffic engineers on requests from residents and councillors in the past so local knowledge is very important before any proposals are to continue.

CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 6: Connectivity and Movement

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 6.14

I support the addition of this road upgrade and support the entire list but i am disappointed to not see any more additional road upgrades since this council likes to always mention that we are one of the wealthiest in the country.

Construction costs and inflation is rising so the best time to carry out road upgrades is now and not in a few years time.

Does the council have a target on how many roads they want to see begin construction throughout the plan? We have a list of roads but no targets.

Do we have any traffic information about the entire ballycoolin road from the roundabout at blanchardstown rd n to the roundabout at cappagh bridge? This road was built with excess land in order to upgrade it to dual carriageway standard. With more industrial units being built and the sport campus upgrading its entire campus and with more people driving to the area in the future, i think ballycoolin road is due to be upgraded to dual carriagway standard. Do the traffic engineers have any opinions on this?

CHAPTER 9: Green Infrastructure and Natural Heritage

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 9: Green Infrastructure and Natural Herit...

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 9.8

I support this. Many high rise communist era tower blocks have been built or are planned to be built along the royal canal which is depressing when you think about it. Destroying nature and biodiversity for small build to rent apartments no thank you.

I support protecting the royal canal and other rivers canals too etc.

CHAPTER 12: Implementation and Monitoring

Caibidil:

PART 2: Proposed Amendments to the Draft Developm... » CHAPTER 12: Implementation and Monitoring

Select, where provided, the reference for the amendment on which you wish to comment , or for flood maps, the drawing ref number:

PA CH 12.2

I 100% OPPOSE and DO NOT SUPPORT this at all.

At the beginning of the development plan, the top table rejected a motion from the green party to count 'carbon emissions' when it comes to road projects and the reason being was that it would either delay road infrastructure and/or will be prevent road infrastructure from being delivered.

So why exactly is this amendment even being considered?

Include at the end of Monitoring Section relating to Policy CMP1 as follows:

To project the potential carbon emissions from major road projects and upgrades and cross reference projections based on road monitoring data after construction.

In other texts the council talks about maintaining and protecting our high quality road infra.(6.17) and also includes several road projects but yet at the same time wants to jeopardise such road infrastructure from ever being constructed.

This amendment will prevent

- Roads being upgraded to dual carriagway standard (the council has roads built to single carriageway with excess land for future dual carriagway example barnhill road and donabate road, ballycoolin road) All the dual carriagway roads near me up in hollystown/north blanchardstown would not be allowed to have been built if carbon emissions were to be included back then, this would have had a major impact on all the general emplyment zoned land in the county. Nobody wants to set up a warehouse if the road infrastructure is rubbish! Thats just facts full stop.

- Will prevent upgrades to our motorways and high capacity roads such as the n3 and n/m2. There is currently a scheme to upgrade the n3 and n2 which the government fully supports and they support it so much that it is even included in the programe for government as a top priority road upgrade.

- Will prevent roads from being upgraded to handle more capacity due to more residential housing being built nearby(thanks to overdevelopment and high density obsession from the council) or level crossings closing which is happening in both parts of fingal (dart west and dart north coastal)

Carbon emissions from road projects are totally irrelevant. Building houses creates carbon emissions. Building schools creates carbon emissions. Build metrolink and its required infrastructure creates carbon emissions. Being alive creates carbon emissions!! This is just insane thinking. Is fingal and the rest of the world supposed to not ever build infrastrucutre because of 'carbon emissions'???

Figures are published monthly regarding electric vehicle sales. Every month in 2022 has seen an increase in electric vehicle sales when compared to months in 2021 and 2020. Even during a global shortage in electric vehicles. These figures are published online by simi and anyone can view them. Trucks and lorries are turning electric. Buses are turning electric. Vans are turning electric. Cars are turning electric, all at a fast pace. So, carbon emissions are toally IRRELEVANT ! and should not be counted.

Carbon emissions from one project will be used to object and try stop another project and there you have it the council has blown providing road infrastructure just because of some silly emissions which have no impact on the real world.

If the council is to proceed with this amendment then they can say goodbye to any road upgrades. This will have a knock on impact on the amount of residential units that can be provided and will deter people from using our GE zoned lands. I ask that councillors object to this amendment as it will prevent roads in your areas from being upgraded. The n3 upgrade will be in serious trouble if we are to continue with this and i fully want the n3 upgrade to happen as it is necessary and is deemed necessary by all 4 TD's whom 3 are government members that agreed to adding the n3 upgrade to the program for government back in 2020.

I object to amendment 12.2 as it is a silly attempt to halt ALL road projects. Its 2022, science is used in construction to eliminate as most carbon as possible. Every county council in ireland is building road infrastructre while we want to count carbon emissions in order to stop them from happening. Unbe lievable.

My Comments

Tráchtanna

Faisnéis

Roinn