Plans to build car park near zoo criticised

Plans to build a 260-space car park on a 5½-acre site in the Phoenix Park near Dublin Zoo have been described as an "abomination" by local residents.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála for the car park at the Lords Walk, close to the Parkgate Street entrance to the park, to serve visitors to the zoo.

Until now zoo visitors have parked along Chesterfield Avenue, the main road through the park, and in front of Garda Headquarters on the park's North Road. However, the OPW has major plans for the upgrade of Chesterfield Avenue, which are currently under consideration by Dublin City Council, that will involve the removal of on-street parking in the vicinity of the zoo.

The new car park will be free, but will open only between 10am and 6pm each day to discourage use by commuters. The planning conditions state that the OPW will not be allowed to fell trees to construct the car park, the car park cannot be artificially lit and an archaeological assessment must be carried out before construction can begin.

The OPW says the car park is part of its overall improvement and traffic management plans for the Phoenix Park. However, local residents have accused it of "concreting over" the park and showing a lack of respect for the amenity. "This proposal is completely wrong. A national park, a beautiful natural environment, will be covered over by a huge, ugly patch of concrete that in the winter will be empty a lot of the time," Pat Allison of the Navan Road Community Council said.

Residents living in the vicinity of the park realised that on-street parking in the vicinity of the zoo caused a danger to pedestrians and was detrimental to the amenity of the park, Ms Allison said, and the community group had suggested to the OPW on several occasions that an underground car park should be built, but an above ground car park was not acceptable.

"This would be an abomination for the Phoenix Park. Concreting over the park shows the lack of respect some people in the OPW have for the Phoenix Park."

The group had objected to the original planning application to the city council for the car park, but had not had the funds to appeal to An Bord Pleanála, Ms Alison said.

"We had hoped Dublin City Council, and then An Bord Pleanála had enough respect and care for the Phoenix Park that they would not have passed this car park."

The plans to upgrade Chesterfield Avenue are intended to reduce rather than increase traffic through the park, the OPW said. The road surface had been badly damaged over the years because of the increase in traffic volumes. In addition to resurfacing, the avenue will be narrowed from 3.75m each side to 3m "in order to reduce vehicle speeds".

The OPW ran into conflict with the city council earlier this year with its plans to introduce a one-way traffic system for the park to reduce the number of motorists using park roads. The plan had involved making all gates, with the exception of the Castleknock gate, the North Circular Road gate and the main park gate, either entrances or exits only.

Councillors argued that cars no longer able to use the park would be pushed on to already congested suburban roads.