Malahide: New Street debate continues as online meeting draws crowd

Nearly 200 Malahide residents and business owners attended a virtual meeting last week to discuss the controversial pedestrianisation project of New Street.

The webinar was organised by Save Malahide Village, a group advocating for the removal of pedestrianisation infrastructure and reopening of the street to two-way traffic.

The meeting consisted of a review of the plans for the Malahide and breakdown of the problems that have arisen since New Street was pedestrianised, according to the group.

During the Summer, New Street was fully pedestrianised for a trial period before being reopened back up to one-way vehicular access.

In a statement, Save Malahide Village said: “The meeting was informed about the public order issues that had arisen as a direct result of the [pedestrianisation] ‘trial’ including: the unlawful large gatherings on the street over Christmas, the Garda Public Order Unit being called on a number of occasions since the street closed last June, and a recurring feature of unlawful public consumption of alcohol and public urination. “

The cost of the project, which is estimated to be about €200,000 was also discussed.

One local resident Majella Dunne who lives on New Street with her elderly mother said that the street had “always been a mix of commercial and residential, but now it was like living with Temple Bar on your doorstep 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with buskers, piped music, and street drinking.”

Business owner, Margaret Bouchon of Buochon Jewellers located just on the corner of New Street and Main Street said that only a small number of businesses were benefitting from the closed street.

She said that Fingal County Council were “distorting competition,” and “disadvantaging businesses in other areas of the village.”

The group says that the “solution” to the problem is to re-open New Street to two-way traffic “and implement the Malahide Public Realm Strategy for the street.”

The Malahide Public Realm Strategy was originally drafted in 2014 by Fingal County Council in collaboration with residents and local businesses.

The plan proposes to not pedestrianise New Street but to allow more space for pedestrians.

Councillor Aoibhinn Tormey, who objects to the closure of the street says that she has “disagreed” with the decision to pedestrianise New Street “from the beginning,” but “in practice the detrimental effect has been much greater than I anticipated.”

Tormey says that anti-social behaviour has risen with the pedestrianisation, along with noise pollution, disruption to local businesses and service providers, and the risk of spread of Covid-19 due to “congregation of large numbers of people in the area.”

Independent councillor Jimmy Guerin who supports the pedestrianisation of the street said that the majority of councillors support the project.

He said: “It would be remiss of me to allow the impression that it was only driven by council officials.

“The plan is being supported by the majority of the councillors and my understanding is the executive has the full support of the majority of councillors.”

Guerin previously told Northside People that he has “received some mail which are against the project but gotten a huge amount of mail for it,” he says.

“It’s a good thing for the village.”

Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell released a statement saying that “over the last number of months, I have received dozens of queries from constituents in Malahide and the surrounding community with regard to the closure of New Street, Malahide.

“It has caused significant division and discord.”

“It’s important to recognise that there are undoubtedly benefits to a one way, a pedestrianisation or indeed a modification of the prior arrangements with parking on both sides and two way traffic but , my overarching difficulty with what has been implemented is that there was no formal consultation, no draft drawings made available to the public in a formal setting and no options presented until several months after the closure took place,” he said.

Jonathan Law, resident and co-organiser of the meeting, said they were “very encouraged by the phenomenal attendance and that despite the online format the audience was very engaged and interested.”

“We ask that local county councillors, Fingal County Council officials, and our local TDs no longer ignore this and now listen and respond fully to the concerns.”