D8 councillors fight for better sporting facilities at Marrowbone Lane

Dublin 8 activists are calling on Dublin City Council to a develop a multi-sports recreational facility at the site of an old DCC depot on Marrowbone Lane.

In 2019, councillors voted in favour of rezoning the land for a mixed-use development including a larger council depot, roughly 100 homes, and two practice sport pitches.

However, while most councillors voted for the rezoning, local representatives voted against the move, saying that the Liberties is in dire need of extra sporting facilities and training pitches.

Sporting groups in the community had been campaigning for a multi-use sport complex to be developed on the site, citing a severe lack of green space.

People Before Profit councillor Tina MacVeigh says that the site can be rezoned for recreational use if enough submissions are made to the draft Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028.

The deadline for public submissions on the draft plan is Monday, February 14.

“We have a unique and possibly last chance opportunity to develop a multi sports recreational facility at Marrowbone Lane at the site of the DCC depot,” MacVeigh says.

“However, we are locked in a battle with council management who insist they must use the site for a depot and a limited number of housing along with a five a side kickabout.

“This is not going to maximise the potential of this site and it is not what is needed in the area.”

MacVeigh says that over 6,000 residential units are due to be developed in the area over the coming years and if the relevant infrastructure is not developed alongside it, “we run the risk that our area will become a concrete jungle.

“The full sized sports pitch at Donore avenue will be developed in the future but the reality is that it will not be enough.

“Considering the radical actions needed to address climate change, it is also imperative that we develop the city as a place where people can live, work, play and visit with all the necessary amenities located within the city boundary,” she says.

MacVeigh says that local councillors and sport clubs support the construction of housing, a depot and extensive sporting facilities on the land– something that she says the site could accommodate.

“At this site we want to see a full-size sports pitch, housing and the depot facilities needed by the council,” she says.

“The Sporting Liberties campaign have long sought development of this site and have proposed a design that could achieve a full-sized sports pitch, some 340 housing units as well as space for the depot needed by the council.

“So there is a way to develop these lands that can meet the needs of environment, residents, sports clubs, community and council,” MacVeigh says.