Sir, - A tiny legal notice published in The Irish Times on May 15th indicated that Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council are planning to implement five major road closures on a permanent basis in the Avoca/Priory area of Blackrock. Plans include total closure to through-traffic of Grove Avenue, Priory Avenue, Avoca Avenue (which served as part of the No. 17 bus route until recently), Green Road and Woodlands Park. "No entry" signs are also planned for Sidney Avenue and Frascati Park. All of these roads carry significant local traffic at peak and other times. Local residents may therefore expect substantial increases in their journey times and distances as a result of being displaced onto the Stillorgan Road, the Blackrock by-pass, Stillorgan Park and Mount Merrion Avenue. As a consequence, many thousands of other south Dublin drivers are likely to suffer significant additional congestion on these arterial routes.
I am more than slightly curious as to why the official public notification of this plan was confined to one 43mm by 170mm legal newspaper notice (in very small print). The title of the notice referred to "Provision of Traffic Calming Measures". "Total Traffic Obstruction" would have been rather more accurate as a description. Also included was a reference to "rat running".
As a lifetime local resident and user of all of these roads, I strongly object to this planned curtailment of my freedom to use public roads in my own locality and to being described as some form of rodent. - Yours etc., David Timoney,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.