I must note that in relation to the Silver Bridge, it has not featured in relation to the development plan of the SDCC. This is despite Fingal County Council's commitment to renovate the bridge on the opposite side and would be idealy if SDCC could reciprocate this. The benefits of this would allow the creation of a Liffey Valley National Park, which would work in tandem with similar parks such as the Phoenix Park and St. Catherine's Park, both of which are rated highly in collaboration with other county councils to serve the community best and would be reflective of the ambition of South Dublin to ensure they reflect the urgency of a climate and biodiversity emergency by protecting nature along the River Liffey and ensure it can be used as a public amenity.
The bridge itself would also have benefits for sustainable travel in the local area. It would aim to cut pedestrian journey times to the Phoenix Park from Waterstown Park from an hour to only ten minutes, and significantly shorten cycling times too. This would enable a wide range of people to use this, including families and children by reducing car dependency and improve health conditions of people by encouraging cycling and walking. This is especially due to the fact the only crossings between Fingal and SDCC is the bridge at the Lucan Weir or as a safer cycling route but longer through St. Catherine's Park. This would enable more journeys to be made and enable cycling commuter journeys too to Castleknock, Lucan and the rest of South Dublin.
As a cyclist both in leisure and for college and volunteering, this would help also to create connectivity through the Greater Dublin Area Cycling Network and create opportunites to cycle around the city rather than be forced to use public transport via the city, which given the current pandemic and to reduce overall car usage would be beneficial for both residents and visitors or commuters like myself.