Dublin People - Residents tormented by M50 black spot

Home

News

Latest News

Residents tormented by M50 black spot

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Residents living along a Southside stretch of the M50 Motorway have made a desperate appeal to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to stop persistent anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping at the back of their homes.
A narrow strip of land that borders the busy motorway lies at the back of about 30 houses in Ballyogan Estate. Since it was created four years ago with the construction of a high wall to keep out traffic noise from the M50, it has become a magnet for illegal dumping and drinking gangs.
Now fed up locals are demanding that the council take action to combat the problem.
A resident who lives in one of the houses that backs onto the area explained the predicament faced by locals.
“It is only since they put up the wall about four years ago that the problems started,” the resident said. “It attracts people who sit out there drinking at the weekends and to be honest it’s a pain in the neck. My husband put gates with locks at either end of this space but they have just been kicked down.
Concerns

“The grass is nearly up to the height of my back wall as it is and there are people throwing rubbish over it,” the resident added. “It also attracts rats and I am going to end up having them in my house eventually. It is just waste ground and the council is doing nothing with it.”
South Dublin Sinn Féin representative Shaun Tracey echoed the concerns of residents, saying the local authority had done nothing to improve the situation.
“This issue was first raised at the time of the building of the motorway,” he said. “ Residents warned that if the land between Ballyogan Estate and the M50 Motorway was left idle it would attract anti-social behaviour and that is exactly what has happened.
“I have been asking the council for some time now to allocate this land to the tenants of the houses backing onto it so that they can extend their gardens to the motorway wall. This would seem to me to be the ideal solution to the problem.
“However, every time I raise the issue with the council I simply receive a reply informing me that the matter is being looked into and I will be kept updated,” he added. “This is unacceptable to the residents who have to live there. They should not have to bear the burden for the council’s inactivity.”
Mr Treacy said the strip of land was in such a poor state that even if the local authority was prepared to hand over the area to residents, they would have to carry out some improvement work on the area beforehand.
“At this stage simply allocating the land to the residents would not suffice,” he said. “There needs to be a thorough clean up and landscaping operation undertaken before it can be handed over to the residents.”
Illegal
In response, a spokesman for the council said they actively pursue all illegal dumping activity in the county.
“Unfortunately, littering, fly-tipping, graffiti and general anti-social behaviour extends over some areas within the Ballyogan Estate, and policing and capturing sufficient evidence has proven difficult,” the spokesperson said.
“The local Ballyogan Estate Management Forum in partnership with the council is funding minor projects such as open space clean ups, the removal of graffiti, environmental enhancement projects and other initiatives identified by the local estate management.
“The council welcomes the fact that residents in the Ballyogan area have undertaken clean-ups as part of the council's estate management programme, and we will continue to support such initiatives.”
A narrow strip of land that borders the busy motorway lies at the back of about 30 houses in Ballyogan Estate. Since it was created four years ago with the construction of a high wall to keep out traffic noise from the M50, it has become a magnet for illegal dumping and drinking gangs.
Now fed up locals are demanding that the council take action to combat the problem.
A resident who lives in one of the houses that backs onto the area explained the predicament faced by locals.
“It is only since they put up the wall about four years ago that the problems started,” the resident said. “It attracts people who sit out there drinking at the weekends and to be honest it’s a pain in the neck. My husband put gates with locks at either end of this space but they have just been kicked down.
Concerns
“The grass is nearly up to the height of my back wall as it is and there are people throwing rubbish over it,” the resident added. “It also attracts rats and I am going to end up having them in my house eventually. It is just waste ground and the council is doing nothing with it.”
South Dublin Sinn Féin representative Shaun Tracey echoed the concerns of residents, saying the local authority had done nothing to improve the situation.
“This issue was first raised at the time of the building of the motorway,” he said. “ Residents warned that if the land between Ballyogan Estate and the M50 Motorway was left idle it would attract anti-social behaviour and that is exactly what has happened.
“I have been asking the council for some time now to allocate this land to the tenants of the houses backing onto it so that they can extend their gardens to the motorway wall. This would seem to me to be the ideal solution to the problem.
“However, every time I raise the issue with the council I simply receive a reply informing me that the matter is being looked into and I will be kept updated,” he added. “This is unacceptable to the residents who have to live there. They should not have to bear the burden for the council’s inactivity.”
Mr Treacy said the strip of land was in such a poor state that even if the local authority was prepared to hand over the area to residents, they would have to carry out some improvement work on the area beforehand.
“At this stage simply allocating the land to the residents would not suffice,” he said. “There needs to be a thorough clean up and landscaping operation undertaken before it can be handed over to the residents.”
Illegal
In response, a spokesman for the council said they actively pursue all illegal dumping activity in the county.
“Unfortunately, littering, fly-tipping, graffiti and general anti-social behaviour extends over some areas within the Ballyogan Estate, and policing and capturing sufficient evidence has proven difficult,” the spokesperson said.
“The local Ballyogan Estate Management Forum in partnership with the council is funding minor projects such as open space clean ups, the removal of graffiti, environmental enhancement projects and other initiatives identified by the local estate management.
“The council welcomes the fact that residents in the Ballyogan area have undertaken clean-ups as part of the council's estate management programme, and we will continue to support such initiatives.”

Vital youth project gets the chop

Thursday, 04 December 2008

Funding for the Opt-In programme, which has worked with hundreds of teenagers in Finglas, is being completely dropped due to economic cutbacks. The closure, which will take effect in the coming...
+ Full Story

Pupil in heartfelt plea for new school

Thursday, 04 December 2008

In 1999, the board of management at St Brigid’s National School in Palmerstown applied to the Department of Education for funding for the upgrading and modernisation of the building, which...
+ Full Story

FAS slammed over lengthy course wait

Thursday, 04 December 2008

In the week that the State agency has been pilloried for its misuse of taxpayers’ money, Noel Reid, from Donaghmede, has called for a complete overhaul of how FAS is run. However, a...
+ Full Story

Students to raise funds for life saving tests

Thursday, 04 December 2008

The Transition Year teenagers at St Kevin’s College, Finglas, are desperately seeking money so that the school’s students can get tested to identify the risk of Sudden Death...
+ Full Story