Parking pressures leading to the loss of front gardens in Dublin, council says

Pressure for parking spaces in Dublin suburbs close to Luas and Dart lines, as well as Dublin Airport, has resulted in a cottage industry of driveway rentals which could be damaging the environment, according to Dublin City Council.

The council has identified increasing numbers of people replacing front gardens with tarmac and concrete to create more space for cars. While in some cases this is for domestic use, householders near transport hubs are renting out spaces to commuters.

“There are people, we know for a fact, paving their gardens and renting out the space,” Padraig Doyle, senior engineer with the council’s drainage section said. “In some cases we’ve seen people put in two or three parking spaces in their garden. There are websites that will show you perfect space near the airport or the Luas. We’re seeing it a lot around the Luas stops in Cabra.”

Replacing lawns with concrete and asphalt pollutes rivers and streams, and causes flooding, he said.

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[ Dubliners urged to stop paving gardens for parking due to negative environmental impacts ]

“If you look at the natural environment any rain that falls on grass, a lot of it soaks into the ground and anything that doesn’t soak into the ground will run off slowly towards the stream or river, or sometimes get caught in depressions or ditches, but will eventually get down to the steam. If we come along and cover all that surface in concrete and tarmac then any rain that falls goes very rapidly into our sewerage system,” Mr Doyle said.

As increasing numbers of people pave over their gardens the problem of excessive run-off into the sewerage system has worsened. “It’s getting worse all the time, and climate change is making it worse again because we are getting more rain and more intense rainfall,” he said.

The problem is acute in older parts of the city where Victorian sewers carry both sewage and rainfall run-off, but increasing rainfall volumes mean that, even where there is a separate rainfall pipe, pollution is being carried to watercourses.

“Capacity problems in these pipes can lead to surface water flooding. Rainfall can carry dog foul, micro plastics and other pollutants to these pipes and on to rivers and streams,” Mr Doyle said.

“You’ll see the sewage in the Dodder, you’ll see it in St Anne’s park occasionally after heavy rain. Or you’ll notice the sewagey smell. Getting this sewage in our rivers and streams means there’s less potential for fish and other species to live, and it’s a less pleasant environment for everyone, and ultimately it can reach beaches as well.”

Garret Flower, founder of Parkpnp, an online platform that allows people to rent out their parking spaces, said it was the case that demand for renting parking spaces has moved from the city centre to the suburbs. However, he believes this should be seen as an environmental gain.

“Since Covid the popularity around suburbs has really exploded, and city centre has reduced. Originally [the] city centre was the busiest, around D1 and D2, but now it’s really shifted to suburbs,” Mr Flower said.

There are already four parking spaces for every car in Dublin Mr Flower said, and he does not believe there is a widespread problem of people removing their gardens to exploit a parking gain.

“We have never seen someone pave over their space so we think that fear is probably unfounded. But what we have seen, if you don’t have access to space, people spend a whole lot of time driving in traffic and congestion until they find one. We save millions of hours of time and pollution every year from our solution,” Mr Flower said.

The council is urging people who are determined to create extra parking to use permeable substances such as gravel or brick paving. Where concrete or tarmac has already been laid, residents could help by removing a strip and replacing it with gravel, Mr Doyle said.

“Often the problem is people don’t know they are causing a problem,” he said.

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