Another Dublin city laneway has been earmarked for closure by Dublin City Council due to intractable drugs, crime and illegal dumping problems.
Swan Alley, which runs between Thomas Street and Hanbury Lane in Dublin 8, is the scene of daily drug dealing and drug use and regular attempts to break into homes.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Máire Devine said the lane had been beset by antisocial behaviour for many years, but conditions have become increasingly “extreme” in recent months.
“Every single thing you can imagine associated with scoring drugs is happening there,” she said. “It’s filthy, there’s people having sex, there’s faeces, intimidation and threatening of residents, and break-ins to apartments.”
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The laneway has a narrow pedestrian entrance beside Mannings Bakery on Thomas Street, but opens into a wider space in front of a gated apartment block car park, which has vehicular access from Hanbury Lane. On two occasions when The Irish Times visited the lane on Thursday people were using drugs.
“We take deliveries in the back of the building and on numerous occasions we’ve had suppliers refuse to deliver to us because there might be 10 or 12 people down the lane actively taking drugs,” operations manager of Mannings Brian McCarthy said.
“We understand that, but at the same time it can leave us in a tight situation if we’re waiting for 100 kilos of chocolate to fulfil orders.”
[ Gates erected at Dublin laneway to stop drug dealing and litteringOpens in new window ]
The use of the lane “as a toilet” also causes problems for the businesses, he said. “If a customer is walking by and considering turning into our bakery and they see people doing that, it’s not a great look. And also we have to consider that people are walking up and down that lane and then coming on to our premises with whatever on their shoes.”
A recent attempt was made to burgle the bakery from the laneway, Mr McCarthy said. “Because it’s hidden, they were able to spend 15 or 20 minutes breaking open a steel door. I called the guards, but I was up till 3am barricading the door.”
Despite these issues, Mr McCarthy said the closure of the lane was regrettable. “It is a little bit sad and tragic to be closing our public spaces. It’s unfortunate that this seems to be the only avenue to solve a myriad of problems, but it seems that that is the case.”
The council will in the coming weeks publish plans to erect gates at both entrances to the lane. The plans will be available for public consultation for a period of four weeks before councillors will be asked to vote on whether to approve the closure.
The proposal follows the closure of Harbour Court, beside the Abbey Street Luas stop close to O’Connell Street, that was blighted by drug use and dumping. Councillors voted last January to close the lane, and gates were finally installed this month.
Cllr Devine said she and the majority of her fellow councillors were not in favour of ending public rights of way but, as with Harbour Court, the situation at Swan Alley had become unmanageable.
[ Dangerous, dirty Dublin lane remains open seven months after closure orderedOpens in new window ]
“I get regular requests for lanes to be closed because there is a problem with laneways around the entire city,” she said. “We shouldn’t be shutting them down, but in this case, you couldn’t stand over what’s happening here at the moment. We have to stop what’s going on and protect the people living there.”
Local Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty told a recent council meeting the closure of the lane was “an absolute last resort” but was required for public safety in this instance.
“I don’t want to be closing lanes in our city, I don’t want to be shutting places down, but the residents in this instance felt they had no option, and we have to back them up because that’s what they’re living with on a daily basis,” he said.
“There is a problem at the heart of this issue that our only solution is to close lanes off because we cannot get a grip of this severe antisocial and criminal behaviour that’s happening in some of these areas.”
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