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DUBLIN COUNCILLORS VOTED this afternoon to close another city centre lane over drug use, anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping.
Swan Alley is a narrow alley – pedestrian-width only for much of its length – running south from Thomas Street to Hanbury Lane in the Liberties area of Dublin 8.
The decision of the city council’s South Central Area Committee to extinguish the public right of way will now go to a meeting of the full council to be rubber-stamped.
No objections to the closure were voiced at the committee today. However, councillors expressed concern that the problems of drug use, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour in the area had reached such a pitch that closing a lane was necessary.
Ciarán Ó Meachair of Sinn Féin said: “I don’t like seeing this happen. It should only be a last resort, but I think we are in last resort territory.”
“There’s a huge amount of anti-social behaviour in that lane – drug dealing, urination. Hopefully this can be a positive for the community.”
Lesley Byrne of the Social Democrats agreed that Swan Alley was at “last resort status” but added: “There needs to be a wider plan that isn’t doing the same thing over and over again.”
How many more places will be ‘last resort’ places where the decision is to close a lane or block off access to people?
“We need a different lens for looking at violence, poverty and drug use in these areas.”
An official told this afternoon’s meeting that the lane has been a “hot spot for drug use and drug dealing for many years”.
Dumping, littering and defecation are persistent problems and the council’s waste management division has to regularly clean and power-wash the lane, the official said.
The request to close the lane came from local property owners, according to a report circulated to councillors.
The report stated that gardaí are in “full support of the alley being closed off”.
The fire prevention officer of Dublin Fire Brigade has also approved the measure.
There were 46 submissions to a recent public consultation on the issue, mostly from residents of apartment complexes adjoining the lane, just two of which opposed closure.
One of the objectors argued in favour of permeability of local streets, and one called for a “greening” project to be initiated at this location.
Last year, councillors closed another Dublin laneway, at Harbour Court in the north inner city, over anti-social and illegal activity, with some councillors also pushing for the closure of Ormond Place, also on the northside.
In addition to these lanes in busy city centre locations, many lanes that provide rear access for residential properties have been closed in Dublin and its suburbs in recent years in response to anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping.
Darragh Moriarty, a Labour councillor for the Dublin 8 area, told The Journal ahead of the meeting that he would reluctantly support the closure of Swan Alley because the problems were so longstanding and intractable, and there appeared to be no immediately available alternative.
He said his “preferred option would be gardaí and the local authority getting a grip on these really pervasive criminal issues” so that the council did not have to resort to closing lanes.
“When it’s presented as the only option, you take it up. It’s a really worrying trend,” Moriarty said.
Local Green Party councillor Michael Pidgeon said he would also support the closure, even though he has opposed the closure of other, larger lanes in the city.
“This is so narrow in parts that I couldn’t imagine it being a viable public space even in a perfect city,” he said.
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