An application for street furniture outside seven venues on an “extremely busy” Dublin street has been branded “ridiculous”.
Dublin Commuter Coalition chair Feljin Jose is concerned about the impact on pedestrians if a large part of the footpath on South Great George’s Street is given over to bars and restaurants. He also hit out at Dublin City Council’s “archaic” street furniture licensing system as he says the proposals are not available to view online.
In order to see the files, a notice about the application says you have to attend the Civic Offices in person while any submissions must be made by post. The active travel advocate told us: “Unfortunately, there’s no online system at all.”
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Instead, Feljin says “signs are on the seven bars and restaurants” included in the application by Future Properties Wicklow Ltd.
In a Dublin City Council letter posted inside The George, Diwali, I Love You So Much, Boojum, San Lorenzo, Pi and Pitt Bros they said they hope to add a total of 47 tables and 94 chairs in a screened total area measuring 100.43m long and 2.36m wide.
“I’m fairly sure the only way to view the details for street furniture license applications is to go into Civic Offices and the only way to make submissions is by post,” he added.
Speaking about the impact of the proposals, he told us: “My view - and the view of Dublin Commuter Coalition - is that outdoor dining areas in the city centre should never be approved where they negatively impact pedestrians or sustainable transport infrastructure.
“There are existing examples of outdoor dining adversely impacting busy footpaths such as on Dame Street. While we’re not opposed to facilitating outdoor dining in the city centre, it should be done by reallocating space from cars.
“Removing cars from that section of George’s Street would require a lot of reorganisation of traffic flow in the area and one which I wouldn’t oppose. However, it’s not on the cards at the moment. This application is for street furniture only.
“It’s a yes/no question on whether the footpath should be given to this company.
“In any case, if we were to remove cars from Georges Street, that road space should go into wider footpaths and segregated cycle lanes — not outdoor dining. There are far bigger public needs for space on that street than licensing it to a private company.”
Dublin City Council has been contacted for a response.
We also approached the architect who submitted the request on behalf of Future Properties Wicklow Ltd to ask whether his client would like to comment.
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