Traffic congestion tops list of complaints from southsiders

Traffic congestion and a lack of recreation resources top the list of complaints for South County Dublin residents.

This is off-set by a belief by 73 per cent of residents that the area is a good place to bring up children. Some 42 per cent consider living in South Dublin preferable to other parts of the State.

The results were revealed in a study of attitudes and aspirations by Lansdowne Market Research for the South Dublin County Development Board.

The board is charged with the task of preparing a 10-year strategy for service delivery and will use the results of the study as a guide. This strategy will be published in October.

More than 30 per cent of those surveyed said the quality of life in south Dublin had got better in the period 1997 to 2002. Ten per cent said it had got a "little" worse.

Just under 20 per cent of people said they did not feel safe in the area and this was a reason for a worsening quality of life over the last five years.

The report notes that Lucan is the fastest growing area in the Republic and that only 5.2 per cent of the population is over 65-years-of-age.

The population of south Dublin has risen to its present level from 219,000 in 1996.

Three hundred face-to-face interviews of a demographically representative group were carried out by Lansdowne between December 2001 and January 2002. The time-scale was constructed to avoid any possible Christmas "feel-good factor".