A DUBLIN LANEWAY has been closed by Dublin City Council after reports that criminal activity, including the sale of drugs, and other anti-social behaviour was taking place there.
Harbour Court, a laneway between Marlborough Street and Lower Abbey Street on the northside of the city, has been closed after councillors felt there was no other option left.
Councillors agreed last night to close the lane after issues had been raised by workers and business and property owners from the area about laneways for over 14 years.
The proposal to close the laneway had been before the council since August of last year, according to independent councillor for Cabra-Glasnevin Cieran Perry.
Many on the council have looked at the closure as a “pity” as they believe the closure will impact the permeability of the city.
Others felt there was no option but to “reluctantly” close the laneway to the public.
Perry said: “We simply cannot police or enforce laneways.
We can’t police or enforce our anti-drug dealing laws in the main streets of Dublin, so we certainly can’t enforce it in laneways.”
“Until we’re in a position until we can, I feel like I’ve no choice but to support the closure of such laneways,” he added.
Fellow-independent councillor for the North Inner-City Christy Burke also “reluctantly” supported the closure of Harbour Court after he said anti-social activity in laneways has been “going on for fourteen years”.
He added that issues had been voiced to him by people who would not walk through the laneway “because of the drug dealing, the injections – the shooting up as they call it – and other activity I will not repeat on this post”.
Later in the meeting Green Party councillor for Pembroke Hazel Chu, who opposed the closure of the laneway, refuted this claim.
“The riot started online. Let’s not make any excuses for where the riot started,” she said.
“Let’s not make excuses for them (the laneways), let’s make the city safer, let’s not just close off the city,” she added.
Burke said: “I would not walk through it. I’m a Dubliner, a very proud one, representing the area for a long time. I would not walk through [the lane].”
It’s not a safe area for men, women or children.”
Burke suggested that working proposals should be put in place, to be implemented in the future, that work to restoring the area.
Green Party councillor for the North Inner-city Janet Horner suggested that such ideas to “lift up the city” should be proposed sooner, instead of closing the laneway – which she labelled “regressive”.
Horner said: “Closing off laneways that offer permeability, that offer people the opportunity to move more comfortably around the city – without having a set of more comprehensive set of ideas about how we can actually lift up the city – is really regressive in my opinion.”
Fellow-Green for Clontarf Donna Cooney agreed with Horner that comprehensive plans to improve the area should be in place before the council agreed to close the laneway to the public.
Cooney said that it was an “awful pity” that the council felt it was necessary to close laneway and voiced that the issue could be forgotten about once the laneway is shut.
“We’re just closing them and once they’re closed – that’s it, they’re gone,” Cooney said.
“I really think we should do everything we possibly can in terms of animating them (the laneways) and making them places where people feel safe to use so they don’t just become a place where you have anti-social behaviour and other things happening,” she added.
Fine Gael councillor for the North Inner-City Ray McAdam said that the council has previously tried, through programmes and initiatives, such as Re-imagining Dublin One.
“We still have not been able to fix the problem,” McAdam said.
“I think it would be remiss of us to ignore the submissions that have been made, the submissions that have been shared with us at the Central Area Committee before Christmas.”
He said that the submissions were “strongly worded” and voiced the concerns of working people and business owners in the area about the laneway.
Director Of Services of Dublin City Council Karl Mitchell said the issue has become “untenable” for businesses whose premises back onto the laneway.
He added that the council had recieved 26 public submissions for the laneway to be closed and just four objections.
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