In May we organised a petition around our Visitors Experience submission to the Office of Public Works (OPW) regarding its plans to redevelop the Phoenix Park [1]. The OPW has now published their Analysis of the Submission Received document [2].
First of all thank you so much to everyone who engaged with the submission. Over 4,500 people joined together to sign our petition on it and a a number used the template document to submit their own thoughts. The OPW acknowledged 1,512 comments (our petition would have been one of those) so a lot of people care about what happens to the park. The first thing to state is that we definitely seem to have made a difference and our work is cited in the OPW document at some length.
If you remember we had concerns about the level of retail proposed and the monetising of the park when really that space should be public and green. We flagged the need to invest in supporting nature within the park as a priority and to ensure its historic character was protected. We also stated that there was an urgent need to improved pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the park and its wider area.
The OPW have decided to go ahead with a number of proposals. Here is the shortened version of the positive proposals:
- Proceed with the conservation of the Magazine Fort and the Victorian Glasshouse
- Proceed with the plans for a pedestrian bridge from the Memorial Gardens to the park
- Undertake a Mobility Study to improve cycling and walking in the park
- Progress plans for sustainable bus and cycle provision to access the site
- Provide more drinking fountains
- All management plans to consider biodiversity
- Commit to more engagement with the public on plans
There are some items they will be progressing with that are less encouraging:
- There is still a plan to provide more parking in the park
- There is still a plan to provide retail though they have committed to ensuring that it will be minimal and local/artisanal in nature
- There was little engagement with the need to “up their game” on biodiversity and no mention of rewilding parts of the park.
All in all some of the more intrusive proposals seem to have been scaled back and the level of resistance the public articulated to the plans for retail and large scale parking is well laid out in the document. This is a huge positive for future plans and permissions.
We’ll continue to stay focused on this issue. If you’d like to be updated on further developments sign up to our mailing list or follow Neasa on social media (links below).