A steady stream of people dropped in during the afternoons and evenings of the first Open Days held by Fingal County Council for the Greater Dublin Drainage project to identify a suitable route and location for vital new drainage and wastewater treatment infrastructure in the northern part of the Greater Dublin Area. Open days were held in the Co Council offices in Swords and Blanchardstown this week and further meetings will be held in Balbriggan Town Hall on Tue 14th June and again in Fingal Co Council’s Swords headquarters on Thursday 16th June, from 2pm – 7pm on both days.
“People were surprised that there are no dots or lines drawn on maps yet and they were interested in telling us about the constraints they see that will affect the routes and locations for the new wastewater treatment works, the marine outfall and the route for the large new sewer pipes that are needed”, says Peter O’Reilly, Project Engineer, Fingal County Council.
People who attended studied maps of north Dublin, reviewed the project information with the Project Team, asked questions and provided interesting ideas and feedback which the Project Team will use to help develop the project. A total of four Open days in total will be held during this first phase of consultation.
“People are very interested in the project development timeline and how the feedback they are giving us will fit into the project and be used to move the project forward”, said O’Reilly. “We’re telling them that the next phase of the project will involve the Consultants taking on board all the constraints that would prevent the new infrastructure being located in any area. The Consultants will then agree a shortlist of a minimum of 6 potential sites or locations and we will put all these sites out for further public consultation.
“Some people are asking about the length of time it will take to get to making a planning application and we tell them that it will be could be two years or more before we get to that point”, says O’Reilly. “We are still at the very early stages of consultation and these 4 Open Days offer people the opportunity to feed into the first step along the way to determining the best locations for this vital new drainage and wastewater infrastructure that is required to comply with the EU water Framework Directive and the Eastern River Basin Plan, both of which have the objective of achieving good quality water, to benefit all.
For further information : Mary Murphy: 087 233 6415
