THERE WILL have to be a “serious rethink” as to how in the future Croke Park will stage complex events such as the upcoming U2 concerts, the director of the stadium has said.
Peter McKenna was reacting to the anger of residents around the Dublin stadium at the terms of the permission granted for the dismantling of the stage after the U2 concerts later this month.
Dublin City Council has, in addition to allowing late-night works at the stadium in the lead up to the concerts, allowed for continuous 44-hour works from midnight on Monday 27th July until 8pm on Wednesday 29th to take the stage down.
The concerts take place on Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Monday 27th, July.
Pat Gates of the Croke Park Area Residents Alliance said the planning permission was “without precedent and is indicative of Dublin City Council’s refusal to recognise that the neighbourhood surrounding Croke Park is a living residential community”.
He said residents were “at the end of their tether” with the council and with Croke Park management.
“People are threatening to block the trucks coming and going they are so boiling with rage about this,” he said.
Works had already got under way in constructing the stage, with trucks which he said were “huge, noisy and laden down”.
“The bottom line is they never pay any cognisance to the people who have to live with this”.
Director of Croke Park Peter McKenna said the feelings of the residents were “entirely understandable” but he asked them not to disrupt the works around the concerts.
“We had an open meeting with residents on Monday night and their anger was very clear.
“The difficulty we are in is that the concert stage has to be dismantled and on its way to the next venue.
“It is a 42-hour process. In hindsight it might have been better if there were only two concerts, and they would be finished on the Saturday night. But then 80,000 fans who are now going on Monday would be disappointed.
“I do implore residents not to disrupt the process and there are many who will benefit from big concert events like this in the area. We will be working with the advance production team to do everything to ensure noise is kept to a minimum.”
He said the message was “very, very clear” from residents.
“We need to seriously rethink how we stage such complex stage events that put such an imposition on residents in the future.”
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said the views of the residents had been taken on board.
“As a result the hours for the licence were reduced from 72 hours to 44 and we have restricted the use of flood-lighting.”
