South William Street will be fully pedestrianised under plans agreed upon by Dublin City Council despite objections from a car-park owner.
The Brown Thomas car-park, which is also known as the Grafton car-park, has an exit on South William Street. DCC had asked the owners if they could reverse engineer their entry and exit so cars would enter at the north of South William Street and exit on Clarendon Street which would mean minimal disruption to the pedestrianisation of South William Street.
The owners reportedly said this plan would present “insurmountable structural difficulties that cannot be overcome”. They added that the trial pedestrianisation of the street has caused business to drop by 30% and internal congestion.
Read More: Car ban on South William Street a step closer after inclusion in development plan
Due to the objection, DCC pedestrianised the small area between Exchequer Street and the entry to the car-park. This meant the only traffic on South William Street was cars coming from the car-park during trial pedestrianisations.
Councillors have agreed to fully pedestrianise the street in the city's new Development Plan. Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne, who proposed the motion, said one car park can't stop the move to pedestrianisation.
She said: "One of the biggest barriers has been the Brown Thomas carpark which is now known as the Grafton Street carpark. What we've been pushing for is to request that cars coming out of the carpark simply turn right and then go round the bottom of Wicklow Street and up Clarendon Street."
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