South Dublin cycle route facing legal challenge

Businesses in south Dublin are preparing a legal challenge to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's plans for a new cycle route that will restrict car traffic in Deansgrange.

The Deansgrange Village Business Group said it was encouraged by the success last month of a High Court challenge against Dublin City Council's plans to introduce a one-way system on Strand Road in Sandymount to facilitate cycling.

The group is instructing solicitors who acted for Independent councillor Mannix Flynn in his action against the city council, it is understood.

Dún Laoghaire council plans to implement a one-way system on Deansgrange Road to facilitate a cycle lane as part of its Active School Travel programme. Traffic would be permitted to travel southbound only between Brookville Park and Kill Lane, a distance of about 800m, with the northbound lane given over to a two-way cycle track.

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‘Chaos’

The business group said the plan is similar to the Strand Road route in that it would “reduce a busy two-way stretch of road to a single lane of traffic”.

It said the proposals would cause “chaos on a busy trading thoroughfare”, and the council had “failed to give due consideration to a less disruptive route [the group] have put forward as a viable alternative”.

The council said it had assessed the group’s options but traffic modelling and a “multi-criteria assessment” found the one-way system with a two-way cycle track was the “preferred option”.

Work on the Deansgrange section is scheduled to begin next month with the active travel routes to be completed by the end of 2021, the council said. It “reserves the right to defend legal action on any matter”, it added.

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