Lucan Village plans rejected by councillors after locals voice opposition

South Dublin County Councillors have voted down a proposal to redesign Lucan’s Main Street after thousands of objections were filed by local residents.

Last week, councillors voted to amend the proposal, which retains parking spaces and other street infrastructure that were due to be removed under the original plan.

The €2 million investment would have meant the creation of a “shared space” for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

Street furniture such as electricity poles and cables were to be diverted underground and improved planting, lighting and seating was also to be installed.

However, local residents and business owners opposed the plans claiming that the removal of car parking spaces would negatively impact footfall and decrease accessibility to essential services such as the GP’s office and supermarket.

Under the scheme, the 40 car parking spaces on Main Street would have been reduced down to 16 while 14 additional spaces were to be installed about 100m away from the street.

Mick Mulhern, the council’s director of land use, planning and transportation, said the local authority had listened to local opinion and redesigned the plans.

Mulhern said that the council understood the concerns about the loss of spaces, and thus included the additional 14 spaces in the final design.

Three were wheelchair spaces and two were “age friendly” to alleviate concerns raised by doctors about elderly patients accessing the GP surgery.

However, the revised plans were still not welcomed by local residents with many objecting to the scheme during the consultation period.

Out of the 7,317 submissions received by the council, 461 of these were made through the online portal.

A total of 4,753 paper submissions were received, but the vast majority of these were pro formas, according to Mulhern. Two further submissions had 2,000 signatures and 107.

Chief executive of the council Danny McLoughlin said the project would have been a significant investment into Lucan and the money may now be spent elsewhere.

Independent councillor for the area Paul Gogarty said that elderly residents and people with mobility problems would find it difficult to access the pharmacy and GP’s office if the parking spaces were removed.

“It won’t do anything to reduce through traffic, you’ll still have cars careering around the corner to get to Lucan bridge to avoid the M50,” he said.

People Before Profit councillor Madeleine Johansson said that the village “is really just a car park” and more needs to be done to reduce the number of vehicles.

“You have a really nice village with huge potential but it’s full of cars,” she said.

She was in favour of the redesign and said it would be a benefit to the village.

However, the amendment to reject the plans was carried by 20 votes to 15.

The other half of the proposal, which dealt with the improvement of the village green will go ahead as planned.

This will including better access to the river, more seating and the creation of an amphitheatre-style space and bandstand.

Lucan Village Business and Services Group (LVBSG) says it welcomes the councillors’ decision.

“This essentially means that Lucan Village will still receive substantial investment, with major upgrades to local amenities such as the Weir Promenade, the Demesne and the village green all going ahead, but crucially without the loss of any parking spaces from Lucan Main Street.”