Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Discussion with the Local Community

From the Ground Up Workshop



Survey of Opinion of Local Residents in the Windy Arbour Area 22nd July 2009

Roy - Worker in Ryans Pub

Location: Ryans Pub, Dundrum Road

The car park beside the pub is owned by the pub. Roy said they don’t enforce clamping. The reason they put the paid parking in place is because of the large number of people who were not customers that started parking there during the day to take the LUAS.

Roy said there is a lot of underage drinking on the site. He said they are just kids, not threatening.

Opinion: Why should we turn our backs on this element of society?, Provide a space where these kids can hang out but not dark corners of parks – this results in a threatening feel for people who move through the space.

The pub maintain hedges around the car park – the guy who does them is away on holidays at the moment so that’s the reason why they are overgrown

Husband & Wife(60) – Residents of Mulvey Park

Location: St. Columbanus Road – En Route to LUAS

They said they never go into the park as they have nothing to go into the park for

The woman said she recalls the green space being called ‘Rourkes Field’ when she was young

She said Mulvey Park & Columbanus have a Residents Association.


Male(60) – Resident of St. Columbanus Park

Location: St. Columbanus Road – En Route to Dundrum

Frequency of visiting a park: He would go to St Columbanus Park twice weekly to practice golf.

Littering: He said that when the weather is good, there are often a lot of cans littered around the site on weekend mornings.

History: 20 years ago the entire site was overgrown. The council then put in the two bridges & culvert.

Vandalism: Over the 40 years living in the area it was very seldom he had seen cars burned out. He said he would not walk through the park at night because of fears for his personal safety.

Aspiration for Site: Seating, Flowers & Lighting at Night

Community Gardening Initative: He said personally it was not something he would get involved in but that he is aware of people who live in Mulvey Park who win competitions every year for their gardens. He said they might be people who could be interested in an initiative like that.

Amenity: He said that the park opposite Clonskegh Business Park always has people sitting out in it when the sun is shining. For some reason people don’t do the same in the site.


Siobhan O’Connor – Resident of Highfield Park

Dog Walker & Mother of Teenage Children

Location: At Home

Frequency of visiting the site: Four times a week – taking her dog for walk. She follows the same route we took on Monday through the site and into Columbanus Park.

She doesn’t believe there is any open space or park that she would consider her Local Space.

Safety: At night she would not enter the site for fear for her own personal safety. In the morning she sees homeless people in the park. She said she feels very unsafe walking along the bridge on St. Columbanus Road. She said it was dark here at night and she had heard of people being assaulted and robbed here. She also said that cars have been burned out here. She knows of people who won’t allow their children to go to the LUAS on their own in the evening.

She believes that people are coming into the area on the LUAS to rob houses. She said that a problem with creating a sense of ownership/pride in anything that created in the site is that you have other people coming into the area who don’t care.




















Appearance: Graffiti and litter in the park is unappealing

She said she was unaware of any name for the site

Aspiration for Site: Seating, Access, more paths, Flower beds & Children’s Play Area

Perhaps having a Dog fenced Area. It is something she saw in Nice and in Marley Park. If seating was created around this space then it would bring a Dog Community together.

Gardening: She was very strongly in favour of the idea of a community garden initiative. She said there is a large population of elderly people in the area who would have gardening skills who she thinks could be interested in getting involved with something – Possibly an initiative to pass on their gardening skills to the younger people in the area. She referenced Allotments in Mount Anvil.

Community: Siobhan said there is a strong sense of community in her estate. However there is not really any connection with the communities in the other housing estates in the area.

Community Meeting: She was in favour of this idea. She suggested September would be a time when people would have more time and less people would be on holidays.

She suggested the idea of a Field day – Egg & Spoon race for the Kids & a fastest Granny Race.

She was in favour of participating in monthly meetings

Community Space: She was not aware of any community space. She said that elderly people are picked up every week at the pub and brought to play in Dundrum.


Woman(70) – Resident of Highfield Park

Retired, Carer

Location: At Home

The lady in this house looks after an elderly woman. She brings her for a walk in a wheelchair twice a week. She said she enters the park through the main entrance. She uses the park because she does not like to walk along Dundrum Road because it is so busy.

She said there is a lot of old people in the area & a large younger generation growing up who need a community space.

Aspiration for Site: Seating & Space to relax needed. One of the reasons she goes to the park is for peace and quiet.

Community Garden: She was open to the idea and referenced one that had started in Balbriggan. She said she was unsure how many people would want it as a lot of the houses have large back gardens.

Wildlife: She felt that the park was a valuable resource for its wildlife value.

Safety: At night she would not go into the park. She would feel safe at other times.


Woman (50) – Resident of Social Housing Maisonette on St. Columbanus Road

Mother & Housewife

Location: On St. Columbanus Road – En Route to Village

She has two young children. She needs somewhere to bring the children and a Play Area is what she really needs. She has to go two tops down on the LUAS to Cowper and then walk for 10mins after that.

She was not aware of any community space in Windy Arbour but she said the St. Columbanus Residence Association use the school for Karate & Bingo.











Access: She said it was hard for her to get into the site because of the wall at the bridge.

She felt the park was not very clean, no facilities for young people and at night she would not feel safe in the site.

Subsequent to my conversation with her I met her 30mins later, sitting on the wall of the green space opposite Ryans pub. Her children were playing on the grass. She said she would never think to go into the green space behind the pub.


Male & Female(23) – Resident of Farrenboley Park

Students

Location: Bus Stop on Dundrum Road

These two students would only use park as a short cut to the shop. The girl would not use it at night time. The man said he would. They never stay in the area to socialise. They don’t know anybody who lives there.

They would like to see a seating area and the park cleaned up.




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