‘Wasteland’ inner-city set to be greened under council plan

Dublin City Council is embarking on a project which involves “greening” north-east inner-city Dublin.

Councillors were told last week that several parks in the area are set to undergo a refurbishment and green walls and trees trails are to be installed in the community.

Diamond Park and James Joyce Street Park are scheduled to be revamped by this summer while Mountjoy Square Park and East Wall Recreational Centre and Park are currently in the consultation process.

The Parks Department will also plant trees and planters throughout the neighbourhood, according to a report presented at a Central Area Committee meeting.

As part of the project, 600 square metres of pavement at Customs House Quay will be removed and replaced with “tree, shrub herbaceous and bulb planting.”

Ireland’s first Urban Tree trail will also be planted by the North Eat Inner City of Dublin (NEIC) initiative.

Cross Care Community Centre, Railway Street, Buckingham Street, and Store Street and Plaza are also being incorporated into the project.

Councillors widely welcomed the plans and called for similar strategies to be extended to other parts of the city.

“As a Cabra and Glasnevin councillor, I am extremely jealous,” said Independent councillor Cieran Perry.

Fianna Fail councillor, Eimear McCormack also welcomed the plans but said that she looks at them “with envy.

“We need to spread it around,” she said.

Green Party councillor for the north-east inner-city, Janet Horner said the community is the least green area in Ireland.

“People are suffering hugely because they live in an area that is so lacking in greenery,” she said.

“It does impact the health and wellbeing of the people who live in our area.

“The connection between physical health, mental health, environmental health and the greening of the area is clear – it really does justify the investment in the area.

“The North inner city is very deserving of this investment.”

However, Horner said that East Wall residents are concerned that trees removed last year have not yet been replaced.

“I understand why, but it was very upsetting to residents to have an area that is so lacking in greenery and to see the few trees that they did have taken away,” she said.

“At the time, there was no plan for replacement.

“We have since learnt that there is an issue with the greening of East Wall.

“It is not under the NEIC, and it is not being financed by the NEIC, we have that gap as to where the greening of East Wall is coming from.”

Horner says that although a strategy has now been drafted progress has been slow.

“We have seen very, very little planting, upgrading, and improvement,” she says.

“I was told we would get a report in January, and I have asked for one every month since, and we still don’t have a report.

“It’s not fair on residents to see backwards steps without offering what we are doing, and what the next steps are going to be.”

Labour Councillor Joe Costello said that he has written to the Taoiseach’s Office to ask them to incorporate East Wall into the regeneration efforts.

“It has been a barren wasteland with regards to greening,” says Costello.

“Dominick Street is even more barren than East Wall,” he said.

“There is no shrubbery, good, bad or indifferent.”

Parks Superintendent with Dublin City Council Gareth Toolan said that “it may not look it, but we have been putting a lot of time into East Wall.”

Toolan said due to the layout and narrow streets of East Wall, it is difficult to locate appropriate spots for trees and planters.

“There are quite a lot of derelict sites in the NEIC,” he said.

“We are having a look at doing a short-term rotational forestry project to fill the space and have a green lung until there are plans made for them.

“This year I’m hoping to look at pushing that forward.”