It is almost five years since Dublin City Council announced plans to install a cycle path on Strand Road in Sandymount as part of its Covid-19 mobility measures, and all hell broke loose in the south Dublin suburb.
On Friday the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court judgment that had blocked the implementation of the six-month trial of the path on the coastal road. The High Court had ruled in 2021, in a case taken by a local resident and a city councillor, that the council should have obtained planning permission to run the trial.
The Court of Appeal has now determined this was an error and the council could have implemented the measure using its own powers under the Road Traffic Act.
This means the council can now go ahead with a cycle path on the road, as it had intended to do in March 2021. It is not yet certain the council will take this step, which raised much ire locally, but the court’s decision confirms a far more fundamental principle relating to the council’s powers to implement such traffic measures without getting into the weeds of a lengthy planning process.
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The Strand Road project, first proposed in August 2020, involved replacing a lane of traffic with a two-lane cycle path. This would result in a one-way traffic system with cars allowed to travel southbound only as far as the Merrion Gates, a distance of about 2.5km.
The council proposed implementing the measure for a six-month trial and undertook a public consultation process in the autumn of 2020.
Almost 3,000 people responded, with 56 per cent “strongly in favour of proceeding with the trial”. Just over one-quarter (27 per cent) objected to the trial, while 17 per cent stated they had some concerns, largely relating to the displacement of traffic.
However, some local residents felt their views had not been adequately considered and the council began an additional consultation process with these groups, including consideration of an alternative plan put forward by the STC Community Group, made up of residents of Serpentine Avenue, Tritonville Road, Claremont and adjoining roads in Sandymount.
[ Sandymount residents urge rethink on cycle plansOpens in new window ]
Council officials determined this alternative plan was not feasible and in February 2021 announced the trial would start in March, using the council’s existing powers.
Residents who remained resistant to the move said the measure should go through the planning process but the council said the cycle path was exempt from planning permission. The council had engaged independent consultants who confirmed there was no requirement for environmental assessments that could trigger an application to An Bord Pleanála, it said.
[ Sandymount cycleway can go ahead after Dublin City Council wins court appealOpens in new window ]
It was this divergence of opinion that triggered High Court action by Peter Carvill of the STC group and Independent councillor Mannix Flynn.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan ruled in July 2021 that the proposed cycleway must be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment and, therefore, must go through the planning process.
He made a finding that the cycleway would not, in fact, be temporary, as the council had submitted.
The council appealed the decision. Owen Keegan, then council chief executive, said at the time the ruling could have “devastating consequences” for the development of cycling infrastructure with the potential that even “modest” interventions to protect cyclists would incur significant costs, delays and workload.
The two-day appeal hearing took place in June 2022 and in February 2023 the court reserved its decision, until now. The appeal court has found the High Court erred in finding the scheme required planning permission. The council can therefore use its own powers to deploy the cycleway, if it so chooses. The council said it is “happy with the outcome and will now review the judgment in full before informing the public in due course of the next steps”.
More importantly, the spectre of having to seek planning permission for any similar cycling measures, or even traffic calming initiatives such as pedestrian crossings, has dissolved.
