Environment, Road Safety, Local Area, Biodiversity

Dear All

Well done on some aspects to the Clondalkin LAP and on the improvements made during its development. However there are still concerns, learning lessons and corrective actions required where we need to safeguard our community for the benefit of future generations. Let’s not waste the opportunity to protect nature with all the demands we are placing on the local area. We haven’t been successful in reaching towards climate neutral and we have missed opportunities to be as good as we can be. I have added specific comments below in a hope that SDCC will make a positive impact in future.

Regards

Jamie Thompson, Riversdale Estate, Clondalkin, D22 (also representing the Riversdale Residents’ Association)

Protecting and Improving The Camac Biodiversity Route (Greenway) At Riversdale

• Riversdale Residents Association recommend protecting the Camac riverside as it is only one of the very few remaining naturally biodiverse greenspaces in the LAP and in the Clondalkin wider area. This is crucial with the amount of recent building and loss of greenspace in the wider area. Small areas of manicured grass in recent developments do not constitute biodiversity and do not make up for the loss of wetlands along the canal).
• Riversdale Resident Association were in agreement in Sep 2025 to a coordinated approach to managing the vegetation along the Camac at Riversdale. Verbal agreement between SDCC, Riversdale Estate, Waterways, Ireland Fisheries, Friends Of The Camac was that native vegetation would be introduced on the estate side of the Camac and then some thinning at the road side would benefit all (trout and other fish, residents from noise and for privacy, and then public transport commuters on buses along Watery Lane).

Promotion of road safety and car alternatives

• Reduction of speed to 30kmh within LAP area
• Enforcement measures including fixed speed cameras as recently introduced at Dolphins Barn, as well as Bristol, UK
• Traffic reduction measures within the LAP area
• Implement measures and restrictions to remove traffic using Clondalkin and Fonthill Road as a rat run, bypass of the M50, and bypass of the Outer Ring Road  (N81 to N4). Note the design of the outer ring road has a mode of failure at due to the bottleneck between Grange Castle and Pennyhill Pub and N4 Lucan Woodies Junction as dual carriageway is compressed between Grange Castle and N4 Woodies which stops it functioning as would appear to be of benefit.

Measures to support local environment and SDCC’s Clondalkin DZ (Decarbonised Zone):

• Lobby national government and own the drive to increase the residential solar panel grants available (over and above the impact of the last 2 years of reductions)
• Additional tree planting (including fruit trees) in Riversdale Estate at the corner of Mayfield Estate Bridge
• Protection of the greenery, native species and biodiversity within the LAP
• See comments below on Grange Castle and Planning Recommendations

Additional improvements to the local area including architectural

• Enforcement action against planning non-compliance including flats opposite molloys and shop fronts
• Implement and lobby for increased detection and enforcement against vandalism and littering and fly tipping which happen daily within LAP

Riversdale Residents Association Concerns

• We do not want a cycle path within the estate due to the  loss of greenery, loss of surface permeability, added CO2 emissions from creation of the building materials, added CO2 emissions from construction, light pollution in the greenspace along the natural environment of the camac where bats roost, and future continuous CO2 emissions from lighting.
• We do not want cuttings through walls (people permeability) as there are residents who are very concerned that there would be increased antisocial behaviour and criminal damage spread through the estate, increased risk to child safety, and risk of drug running. There are 2 routes already available. 1 from Orchard Lane to Riverside is blocked off, and 1 already exists between Dept of Social Protection and Riverside
• There has been no direct consultation survey of Riversdale Estate residents or association on transport plan on the feasibility of a cycle path in the estate or cutting through walls, therefore no proof that these 2 measures within the estate would get people out of cars, and no validation of the number of cars that would be removed from the road. Note most school children living in Riversdale who school in the village are seen walking with parents so do not use a car for the school commute).

Lack of Adequate Planning and Failure to Apply Moral Environmental Obligations

• District heating has not been included at recent Data Centres in Grange Castle and the nearby recent developments. This is both sad and contradictory from SDCC whose consultants were involved in the Clondalkin DZ and Tallaght District Heating therefore had ample opportunity at all the construction phases to build this in. Grange Castle data centres use energy to cool their processes, Local residents use energy to heat their water and houses, but as a failure of planning, construction and energy policy they were not joined up.
• Solar panels have not been implemented across buildings and organisations at Grange Castle. It seems very short sighted to not apply planning requirements and restrictions or pre-conditions to these sites. It would appear to me that if we require data centres to be resilient and not risk electricity supply outages, that solar panels at all sites would have accounted for some reduction to the impact of these sites on what is 21% of the Country’s energy demand.
• The new construction in close proximity to the Takeda Grange Castle and Grifols Grange Castle sites has been pumping out red-brown smoke repeatedly during Aug2025 and Sep2025 without any enforced cessation, monitoring or assessment by planning authorities, council, or EPA.
• Data centres have been generating CO2 and visible particulate matter (black smoke) pollution from their chimneys in and around Grange Castle for months.

So whilst the Clondalkin LAP has many good points and has evolved for the better in some cases there are pitfalls and items we must improve to make this a community worth living and we should live up to the 2050 vision that was talked about by SDCC in conjunction with Codema, otherwise it would appear that the Clondalkin DZ was merely a PR stunt.