*Dlr Press Release 17th May 2021*
Project to create people-friendly spaces in the County’s towns & villages this summer
We are delighted to announce dlr’s “Summer Streets” initiative which aims to provide safe, welcoming and people-friendly public spaces in our towns and villages and bring life, food and energy to the County’s streets this summer. This will involve, among other things, the reallocation of existing car parking spaces, and this will help the Council provide attractive, safe spaces for cafés, restaurants and pubs, allowing diners to enjoy the food offerings of our hospitality businesses in comfortable surroundings throughout the summer and beyond.
Working in partnership with businesses and communities in our towns and villages, Summer Streets will allow people to move around in safety and comfort and allow diners to enjoy the outdoor dining experience, help hospitality businesses re-establish in, what we hope will be, improving times and deliver an enhanced vibrancy to our streets. Actively enticing people back into the heart of our villages and towns will bring additional benefit to all retail businesses as well as hospitality.
Building on previous interventions in Blackrock, Dundrum, Sandycove, Glasthule and Dalkey, the first area for this initiative will be Summer Streets: Cabinteely. The attached layout and 3D visuals give a flavour of how the village will be transformed under the scheme. In preparing the proposal for Cabinteely, the Council has worked in close collaboration with the businesses in the village.
Further similar works to provide people-friendly public spaces and support outdoor dining are planned for other parts of the County, including Stepaside, Monkstown and Dún Laoghaire, and we continue to receive requests through our dedicated online portal for various locations throughout the County. We will also be reviewing and updating outdoor space plans for Blackrock, Dundrum, Glasthule, Sandycove and Dalkey, in association with hospitality businesses at these locations.
dlr Summer Streets is a cross-departmental initiative of the Council initiative, with a specific Outdoor Dining Group established to engage and collaborate with hospitality businesses and deal requests and queries related to outdoor dining.
Works in Cabinteely Village and at other locations in the County will commence in the coming days, with the aim to have works completed for the start of outdoor dining on 7th June. The Council will be carrying out the necessary works to essentially temporarily build out and infill the car parking spaces, making safe with the boundary of the road carriageway, finishing the surface level with the adjoining footpath and providing screening through the use of planters. The finished space will then be handed over to the businesses who will then be able to put out their own street furniture, awnings or canopies. Businesses will be allowed use the space subject to the terms and conditions of an outdoor furniture licence, which includes ensuring that footpaths are kept clear of obstructions and don’t impede the safe movement of pedestrians or people with mobility challenges.
Speaking of the announcement of the Summer Streets initiative Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Cllr Una Power said
“This initiative aims bring buzz back to our street and improve the streetscape in a more people oriented way. It is also a demonstration of Councils commitment to continuing to support local business, especially the hospitality sector, bringing footfall into our smaller villages. Very excited to see this come to Cabinteely – it’s going to be a fantastic spot for an outdoor summer!
For Cabinteely Village, two pocket spaces with public seating will also be provided and it will be necessary to relocate a disabled parking space a short distance to facilitate the changes and the relocated disabled parking space will be made fully accessible. Existing loading and delivery spaces within the Village will be retained. The existing traffic layout within the village will remain unaffected although some minor traffic calming interventions will be integrated for safety purposes.
In the meantime, we continue to offer the Street Furniture Licence free of charge, Fáilte Ireland’s Outdoor Dining Grant, with a grant of up to €4,000 available for the purchase of street furniture, and a dedicated online portal for queries and requests on Reallocation of Outdoor Space, all of which are available to individual businesses.
