Ongar-Castaheany Cycle Network

Fingal County Council have put on public display the new Ongar-Castaheany-Littlepace cycle and footpath upgrade scheme.  The scheme is funded by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar. 

Last year I encouraged the council to apply to the Department of Transport for this type of scheme as I was aware that similar applications were being made from other local authorities. I am conscious of the many people want their children to have safer access on foot and by cycle to local shops and schools in the area. 

 The scheme will provide for new and improved integrated cycle and walking infrastructure in the Ongar, Castaheany and Littlepace area. It is of course very timely as National Bike Week takes place from 16th to the 24th of June.

Read more »

Read more...

Planning at Phibblestown House

Menolly Homes have applied for planning permission for development at

Phibblestown House & Grounds, Phibblestown, Hansfield Road, Clonsilla, Dublin 15 (FW11A/0116)

Read more »

Read more...

Old Hansfield road project gets vital funding

Fingal County Council has received funding to pedestrianise and upgrade the old Hansfield road between Ongar, and Phibblestown.

The road was once part of the Clonsilla to Clonee road but was closed off when the Ongar road was built. A scheme (see back) to pedestrianise the old road in 2008 had to be shelved by the council due to lack of funds. Since then it has attracted a lot of dumping and anti social behaviour and was the site of a number of serious assaults in the past year.


With a new government in place I urged the council to apply for funding in the hope of getting the project underway again. I am pleased that our local TD, the Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Leo Varadkar, has confirmed that the National Transport Authority has allocated €250,000 to help upgrade the road. The works must be carried out before the end of the year.

This is an important route for students attending Scoil Setanta and Scoil Grainne at Phibblestown as well as those using the new sports and community facilities there. Upgrading the road and installing adequate lighting will provide safer access for all especially in the dark winter evenings to come.

See here for more information on the original scheme

Read more...

Minister Dempsey to bypass Hansfield Station.

Commuters on the new railway line from Dunboyne are in for a surprise when they arrive at their destination in the middle of Dublin’s Sheriff Street. While most commuters will want to travel to Connolly and Pearse Stations, the Dunboyne Line will only service the Docklands Station.

This will likely lead to overcrowding on the Connolly Line as many of the new Dunboyne commuters seek to change trains at Clonsilla. The only connections at Docklands Station are the 151 Bus and the Luas Red Line, both of which service O’Connell Street. There is no link to the business districts south of the river. This issue must be addressed by Minister Dempsey’s Department of Transport.

Meanwhile the new Hansfield station at Ongar remains closed because there is no road access to it. It must have been embarrassing for Transport Minister Noel Dempsey as he passed it en route to the opening ceremony in Dunboyne today. The road was to have been provided by the local developers but they have stopped all building on the site.The Transport Minister must show some leadership here and get the issue sorted between the planning authority, Irish Rail and the developers.

Read more...

VEC Signs Contracts For Phibblestown Schools

A leading construction firm, PJ Hegarty and Sons has been awarded the contract to design and build the new Phibblestown schools campus in Castaheany. Contracts were signed at a very low key ceremony on April 6th attended by the Minister of Finance Brian Lennihan and Mayor of Fingal Michael O'Donovan. Local residents and members of the public were not invited.

Work is expected to begin by the summer but this will depend on the outcome of the planning application due for decision in May. Twenty Submissions have been made by or on behalf of residents whose houses will be overlooked by the three storey schools only 16m behind them.

The Phibblestown schools project is one of the first education projects to be procured using the Public Works Contracts for Building Works Designed by the Contractor.

Read more...

New Schools for Ongar and Clonee

County Dublin VEC have submitted a planning application (Ref: FW09A/0032) for the long awaited permanent national school, secondary school and community centre buildings. These buildings of course were promised at the last elections and this planning application comes just two months before the upcoming local elections.

• The development on 8 acres will consist of a three storey post primary school and community centre consisting of 27 classrooms, 38 specialist classrooms, PE facilities, a special needs unit and ancillary accommodation. It will accommodate 1,000 pupils.

• There is a separate three storey primary school consisting of 24 classrooms with a special needs unit.

• 115 no. parking spaces including universal access car parking, 9 enclosed 510 sq.m ballcourts and 1. enclosed 2705 sq.m artificial football pitch with floodlighting.

• The application also provides for dismantling the recently built 2 storey temporary prefabricated school.

You can view the plans and drawings on April 1st upstairs in the Paddocks from 8pm to 10pm.

Read more...

The 7 Storey ‘Feature’ Building........

The 7 Storey ‘Feature’ Building proposed at the Ongar roundabout has been reduced to 5 as a condition of the planning permission granted to Menolly Homes for their residential development of 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments in 3, 4, 5 and 7 storey blocks (Ref: F08A/1234). This is part of the Hansfield SDZ. Several applications have already been granted in this area which will see 3,000 units built to accommodate over 7,000 people between Clonsilla train station and Ongar.

Read more...

‘Segregation in Education’

Today the New York Times invites readers to a national conversation about immigration and its consequences, something everybody hides from here in Ireland. The first article, to be published this weekend, will report on a Virginia school district that segregates students who are the children of immigrants, and who don’t speak English well, to make it easier to give them intensive support.

When Fine Gael Education Spokesperson Brian Hayes made a similar suggestion last August he was supported by the secondary teachers union ASTI but others used it as an excuse to jump up and down and brand him a racist. He later issued a statement regretting the use of the term ‘segregation’ and there the debate in Ireland ended.

Except at the school gate of course. With cutbacks now in language support teachers there is growing resentment that it is the English speaking children that will lose out as classes get larger and slower.

Brian insisted he was motivated by concern both for the migrant children who were being “left behind” and for the many parents who were frustrated at the effect the lack of segregation was having on the education of their english speaking children in their preparations for Junior and Leaving Certificate exams. The Government meanwhile is hiding behind three major research studies into the teaching of immigrant children in our schools and as you'd expect these are not due to report anytime soon. Join the NYT debate here.

Read more...

Clonsilla To Go High Rise

Clonsilla To Go High Rise - Plans, Drawings and further information will be on display at our Information Evening Upstairs in the Clonsilla Inn on Tuesday Jan 13th from 7.30pm to 9 pm.

Two planning applications were submitted on December 23rd which may be of interest to residents of Clonsilla. Both are at the Junction of the Clonsilla Road / New Link Road, accross from the filling station. Objections must be made by February 4th accompanied by the requisite €20 fee.

Paul & Harry Warnock have applied (F08A/1440) to redevelop the Old Post Office (beside the funeral home) and the site behind it for a medical centre, crèche, community studios, nursing home, semi-support elderly housing/ apartments. You may recall I alerted you to a previous application on this site for a large private car parking facility in May last year which was declared invalid and it seems that this one has been as well.

Across the road at the junction of the New Link Road, E P Lynam Properties have applied (F08A/1445) to develop the vacant site there for a mixed use residential and neighbourhood centre totalling 176 dwellings of up to 5 storeys in height.

Thirty three 3 and 4 bed houses will back onto Portersgate Estate. The remaining 143 apartments comprising 3 and 4 storey blocks will front onto the New Link Road and the Clonsilla Road. Completing the development is a 5 storey ‘feature’ building at the corner with the New Link Road comprising a neighbourhood centre of 5 Retail Units. Unlike a previous application on this site there is no proposal included for a licensed premises. The entrance to the development will be opposite the entrance to Castlefield Court Estate. One of my criticisms of the current council’s Clonsilla Urban Strategy, which mandates a maximum height of three storeys for the village, was that it did not apply to this site. While some political parties will no doubt support such high density development beside a train station a 5 storey building here is a out of character with the area.

Lynam’s have also submitted an application (F08A/1444) to for a 1 and 2 storey Creche at their other site adjoining the Ongar Road to service the 182 dwellings proposed there (F05A/1153) as well as the new development. There has already been some site preparation here but I am informed there will be no further work given the disastrous state our economy is in.

December 23 seems to have been a busy day in the planning office. Among the other applications submitted on was one for 538 dwellings with associated shops, offices etc. in blocks up to four storeys high (F08A/1425) on the vacant site at St. Patrick’s National School in Carpenterstown.

On the same day Uxbridge Ltd. submitted new plans (F08A/0892) for the controversial high rise development opposite Myos in Castleknock which your local Fine Gael team objected to previously. We will continue working on your behalf.

Read more...

Dublin Bus changes to Clonee/Ongar Routes

Dublin Bus is considering changes to bus routes in the Clonee/Ongar area. These include a new peak-period direct bus from Ongar (the 139), re-routing all 70 buses to serve Littlepace and then travel directly to town along the N3. An inbound bus lane along the N3 from Clonee to Blanchardstown has been agreed by the council. The council is also due to decide shortly on plans for bus lanes along the Blakestown Way which if approved may reopen the prospect of the Bus Gate to Huntstown Wood via Bramblefield. Fine Gael is opposed to this.


Dunboyne Rail Spur: Progress is being made on the Dunboyne rail spur which is expected to open in 2010. Stations will be located at Pace (near Dunboyne where there will be a large park ‘n’ride), Dunboyne and Hansfield to the south of Ongar. These trains will run to Docklands. Planning has already been submitted for the Hansfield Station. Detailed drawings, etc. can be accessed, at http://www.fingalcoco.ie/Planning/PlanningSearch (ref no F08A/0518)

Read more...

Pedestrianisation of Old Hansfield Road

Read more...