In Belmayne, another summer has passed with no playground

“It’s disgraceful that a playground has been allowed to fester for years,” said Social Democrats Councillor Paddy Monahan at last week’s meeting of the council’s North Central Area Committee.

Monahan was referring to the long-running saga over revitalising a former playground in the middle of Belmayne Square. 

The play equipment was removed years ago, so at the moment, it’s just a patch of tarmac surrounded by benches and trees.

Certain quarters of Dublin City Council have, in the past, failed to understand the significance of getting the playground sorted, says Michelle McGoldrick, chairperson of the Belmayne Community Group. 

There have been empty assurances over the years, she says.

“It's hugely significant that people in the area see that Dublin City Council are working with us,” McGoldrick said on Wednesday, by phone.

That’s because of the wider plans afoot in the area.

In May, the council published a new 39-page strategy for Belmayne and Clongriffin. It sets out a roadmap for adding long-awaited social, cultural, and recreational infrastructure to the area to complement the housing there.

The strategy also came with the promise of €13 million in capital funding towards the effort.

At last week’s committee meeting, Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha echoed the view of McGoldrick that visible, early gains, even small ones, are extremely important for the morale of the people of Belmayne.

“There’s one issue that we repeatedly raise, and it seems little or no progress has been made on it, and that's the small recreation area, the former playground in the middle of Belmayne,” says Mac Donncha. 

“It's very disappointing that it wasn't delivered for this summer,” he says.

Taking in charge

Several years ago, the playground equipment initially added by the developer there fell into disrepair, said Mac Donncha, by phone on Wednesday.

There was a campaign for the council to take the site in charge, he says – taking over responsibility for it from the developer that built it. The council did that more than three years ago, Mac Donncha says.

Google Street View images from 2009, 2019 and 2022 show playground equipment on site: a slide, swings, a climbing frame. By 2023, it all appears to be gone. 

“There was an expectation that the playground could be ready for summer last year, and then we were told summer this year, and it's still not ready,” Mac Donncha says.

The Belmayne playground is a perfect microcosm of the broader issues associated with private developers staying in control of residential areas, said Monahan, the Social Democrats councillor, back in May.

For the fraction of the cost of building a single apartment in Belmayne-Clongriffin, it could have been sorted, says Monahan, of the Social Democrats.

Moving finally

During a site visit and walkaround in March 2023, Richard Shakespeare, who was then the council’s deputy chief executive, and has since moved up to the top job, made a commitment to residents for a new playground, says McGoldrick.

While she has been frustrated by delays since that visit, she says that the council have been far more pro-active in the area in recent months, since the big announcement that the council would invest more in the area.

Earlier this year, the council had the ground surface of the playground re-tarmaced, says McGoldrick. But, still no equipment.

Bruce Philips, the council’s North Central Area manager, has been linking in with the community a lot recently, she says. “He's been bending over backwards to get stuff done on the ground and work with us.”

As has Mick Carroll, local area manager for Donaghmede/Clontarf, she says. 

This week, she says council workers were out doing maintenance and gardening work around the area’s laneways. “That’s something.”

At last week’s North Central Area committee meeting, chair Daryl Barron, a Fianna Fáil councillor, joined in the chorus of frustration with Monahan and Mac Donncha.

“There has been no accountability on this issue,” Barron said.

He raised his own concerns that the wait will continue into 2026.

However, Fergus O’Carroll, the council’s senior executive parks superintendent for the area, gave assurances that the time was nearly here.

The council went to procurement in Q2 of this year, he says.

They have now appointed a contractor, exchanged contracts, and are just waiting for the contractor to give a firm date, says O’Carroll.

The contractor indicated last month, he says, that the work on the new Belmayne playground would finally commence in October.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.