Living the good life in the back lanes

As almost every conceivable space in Dublin now catches the eyes of developers, city and suburban home-owners are turning their attention to resources that are literally on their back doorstep.

Back lanes, long since the hidden face of Dublin's dereliction, are now being reclaimed by groups of residents as communal spaces that offer potential for children's play areas, safe off-street car-parking and/or garden extensions.

While the initial idea to reclaim a back lane is often spurred on by the security risk that these hidden spaces pose, the result is often much more positive and lifestyle-enhancing for all the residents concerned.

Andrew Bradley and Beverly Turner are one couple who, together with the other residents on the Blackrock end of Mount Merrion Avenue, have taken the initiative to close off their back lane for use by all of the residents in the terrace.

With a lovely selection of protected trees - chestnut, sycamore and a beautiful old eucalyptus - some old stone walls and an abundance of fuchsia bushes along the sides, this back lane looks for all the world like a country lane. "The idea is to give our children access to each other's homes without having to go out on to the busy road at the front of the houses," explains Andrew Bradley. "We plan to build tree houses and put up swings so that they can explore the area while we know they are safe."

This particular group of residents has put up an electronic gate at one end of the lane. The other end of the lane was already walled up. Such a measure also ensures that access to garages at the end of the back gardens is restricted to residents. "The security issue was the key catalyst to our gating off the laneway but then, once we realised we had a facility, we said, let's use it," says Mr Bradley.

Many other groups of residents closer to the city centre have also blocked off back laneways, primarily to prevent the uninvited from making the space their own. "Our back lane was used as a quick escape route for young criminals, hiding from the gardai and for drug users. There were syringes on the ground which was very dangerous for our children," says one resident whose home borders an area where there is a serious drug abuse problem.

Everyone - including the gardai - thought it was a good idea to wall it off, says Ms Turner. "Our house is on the end of the terrace so we have a gate on to the street but everyone else has simply knocked down their back wall and extended their side walls to incorporate the extra space into their gardens," she explains.

Access to services such as water mains, sewage pipes, gas and telegraph poles can, however, deter a corporation or county council from allowing residents to close off a back lane. Sometimes, access agreements are reached between residents and service providers by means of having extra keys to the laneway's gates. In rarer cases, the council decides that access is too crucial to allow the lane to be closed off.

Service issues aside, not everyone agrees that individual homeowners should commandeer what were hitherto public shortcuts to the local shops or quiet romantic laneways, enjoyed by locals. One Dun Laoghaire resident whose back lane is currently used as a dumping ground puts it this way. "I would like to see the lane cleaned up as I know some lovely back lanes with climbing plants growing up the back walls. But I don't agree with people gating off these lanes. In my mind, that's not civic spirited. However, if junkies were shooting up in my back lane, I might feel differently."

Dublin Corporation, South Dublin County Council and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Council are some of the public authorities experiencing a surge of requests from groups of house-owners in recent years regarding their legal rights to close off back lanes. While ownership of these lanes can be in the hands of one of the residents on a terrace, generally speaking, the lanes are technically owned by the company which first developed the terrace or estate in question, which has long since relinquished any ownership rights or responsibilities. Residents' queries are usually dealt with by the roads department of local councils although the planning department is sometimes involved (for example, when closing off laneways behind public housing schemes or when the ownership of the lane is clearly stated in the deeds of a private house). Once a legal search regarding ownership of the lane (usually carried out by the relevant county council free of charge) reveals the owner to be the original builder or developer of the estate, with the council having since taken over maintenance of the lane, the council then usually proceeds with the residents' request to close off the lane by means of extinguishing the public right of way through the lane. This involves putting a notice in the local newspaper and allowing for six weeks to elapse (during which time objections can be raised) before the county councillors vote on the issue.

Again, generally speaking, the councillors pass such requests to extinguish rights of way.

So, once the council has legally extinguished the right of way through the lane, - no money changes hands during such transactions - the residents are free to use it as they desire, with the exception of building mews in it.

Whether back lanes still hold potential for owners to build mews in them comes down to whether individual owners can get planning permission to build.

Many of the wider back lanes close to the city centre have already been developed to their maximum potential with well established mews use at the end of gardens in Ballsbridge (Pembroke Lane and Heytesbury Lane, for instance). Other areas, such as Dun Laoghaire, have certain lanes designated for mews development specified in the county development plan.