Last week members of Sustainable Skerries attended the Community Group engagement evening regarding the proposals for the Harbour Road Public Realm Enhancements and the Red Island Loop. We were given an opportunity to hear about the plans and provide our feedback on aspects we welcomed or would like to see incorporated. Committee member Karen Power writes:

It is great to see the plans progressing and the exceptional improvements that the Council have planned for this public space. In particular we welcome to focus on including biodiversity aspects within the plan such as a wildflower strip between the pedestrian and cycling / wheeling paths. We also welcome the focus on improved accessibility for residents of Skerries with mobility issues including dedicated closer parking for accessible parking and age friendly as well as drop off points outside businesses and residential spots. We did emphasise the need to look at facilitating hidden disability parking within the scheme.

The delivery of proper segregated pedestrian / cycling where feasible is also welcome and we were pleased to see the significant ways in which the project will enhance safety where there is shared space between car users, pedestrians and other active travel users. And we welcome the effort to which the Council have gone to, in order to engage specific users of the public space to ensure the enhancements do not impede their ability to operate.

As a group we emphasised the need to carefully balance any public lighting on Red Island with the need to minimise disruption to wildlife and nocturnal hobbies such as star gazing and northern lights photography and we feel it may be possible to reach a compromise involving part of the space being lit with the other remaining in darkness.

We are very exciting about the prospect of the rainwater planting which will minimise surface water run-off and improve our sea water quality and welcome the inclusion of Sustainable Urban Drainage.

The project has the capacity to overhaul the public realm in this area making it safer and more attractive for all who use it. We would encourage people, if they can, to attend the open consultation event on Thursday in Prosper Fingal where people can drop in, see the plans and chat to the project team. Or you can have a look at the scheme on this page of Fingal County Council website.