Council drops plan for new playground in Clonsilla

Fingal County Council has axed its plans to develop recreational facilities at Castlefield Park in Clonsilla.

The council had proposed an extra playground in Castlefield Park, as well as a calisthenics area in Castlefield Court as part of its Clonsilla village framework plan.

But, at the May monthly council meeting on Monday, Donal O'Ceallaigh, Fingal’s senior executive planner, said they are going to drop this project from the plan, which acts as an advisory framework for future developments in the village.

Adding these recreational amenities was one of eight projects listed in the village framework plan, alongside a traffic-management scheme, active-travel links and works to “redefine” the village centre.

The framework isn’t a finalised document, O'Ceallaigh said. “This will form the basis for potential projects which will need to get funding themselves.”

Each one will need to go through a planning consent process, and public consultation, he said.

These proposals were previously shown to local councillors at the Blanchardstown area committee back in January.

However, the Castlefield project was the single biggest “bone of contention” among residents when the plan was put out for public consultation, O’Ceallaigh said at Monday’s meeting.

“There was a fear, I think amongst people, that if you provide additional playgrounds in the area that they act as magnets to anti-social behaviour,” he said.

As such, a report from council Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly recommended the removal of the plans for the Castlefield recreational facilities from the framework plan, O’Ceallaigh said. 

“However, we do still recognise that there is potential for public-realm enhancements in the area,” he said.

It’s a large area of open grass at the moment, he said, and given its size, it could benefit from some improvements.

Fine Gael councillor Ted Leddy said he was pleased with the plan, but was worried that the council was looking to convert this open space into a park. “That to me does seem like a very unusual, if not unprecedented practice.”

It would be a very significant sacrifice for the residents, he said.

Was it going to be purely public enhancement works? asked Labour Councillor John Walsh. 

“That could be benches, could be flower beds. But it wouldn’t be kinda large-scale works, which would effectively take over the green space and change the purpose of that green space.”

There was no intention to turn it into a park – it will be benches and planting, O’Ceallaigh said. “That’s the level of intervention that we would propose there.”

And residents would be consulted on any enhancements, he said.

Similarly, the chief executive’s report recommended that a proposal to improve connectivity at Lambourn Park, Lambourn Avenue and Weavers Wood be omitted from the plan.

This, Farrelly’s report said, would have consisted of the removal of walls and fencing.

That turned out not to be feasible, O’Ceallaigh said.

Solidarity Councillor Helen Redwood said this decision was good, “because it was a runway for skullduggery and so on”.

Redwood also said that more of the buildings that contribute to the area’s character should be preserved, pointing to Clonsilla Lodge and Keane’s Cottage.

Clonsilla Lodge was demolished so that the developer Deanbay Limited could build 57 apartments on the site, despite local efforts to protect it on account of its historic chimney stack, dating to 1897.

It wasn’t a protected structure, nor was Keane’s Cottage, an early 19th-century house, which Redwood also cited, and which residents had also campaigned to save.

J&C Porterstown Road Development Limited was granted permission to tear it down for 82 apartments and 8 houses on 14 February. But on 26 February, locals appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanála, with the decision currently pending.

Places like these are historic sites that could be developed as an amenity rather than being given demolition orders, Redwood said. “If they have fallen into disrepair, then they need to be repaired.”

The Old School House, a two-storey protected structure from 1853, is one such example nearby that should be preserved as a community facility, she said.

But the council has been slowly getting a masterplan for the Old School House site ready, and which is currently being progressed, O’Ceallaigh said. “We plan to go on display with the draft in the next few weeks.”