October 18, 2018

Plans for a €10 million plaza at  College Green have been refused by An Bord Pleanála due to concerns about negative impacts for bus transport and traffic in the city. The decision puts in disarray Dublin City Council’s flagship project for developing a landmark civic space in the city centre of the city, while improving the running of the cross-city Luas line.

The council had 18 months ago sought permission from the board to build the pedestrian and cycle plaza and ban all traffic, including buses and taxis, from accessing Dame Street through College Green. However, in its ruling issued on Wednesday morning, the board said it would not approve the scheme because of “significant adverse impacts on pedestrians and on bus transport within the city centre”.

The board said there was “uncertainty” about the potential effects on the bus system, but they were likely to be “significantly negative”, it said, “in the light of the scale of rerouting of buses proposed, the critical importance of bus transport to the city, and its future role in facilitating modal shift from public car usage, in line with national policy”. The board criticised the traffic analysis done by the council and was not satisfied the analysis was “sufficient to accurately quantify the traffic impacts of the proposed development and the magnitude of those impacts”.

In addition, the council had failed to “demonstrate that the existing footpaths on both sides of the Quays have the capacity to accommodate the increased numbers of pedestrians that would be redirected onto the Quays as a result of bus re-routing”.

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