‘Car free village’ included in improving Main Street

Five plans for enhancing and improving Tallaght Village, including a plan to pedestrianise a section of Main Street to create a car-free ‘village heart’, were discussed with members of the public across two presentation nights.

Almost 50 people attended the second round of public consultations for the Tallaght Village Enhancement Scheme which took place at St Mary’s Priory.

These consultations consisted of workshops built around the five different design options for Tallaght Village proposed by South Dublin County Council, which in turn were based on feedback from the first set of public consultations which took place in October this year.

The scheme aims to create a safer, more attractive, and people friendly environment in Tallaght Village by improving traffic flow, improving walking and cycling connections, and creating a high-quality public space, ahead of upcoming BusConnects services due to be rolled out in Tallaght next year.

The five proposals included a ‘Do-minimum’ option 1, which would just remove street clutter, add new traffic management and BusConnects.

Option 2: A Quieter Two-Way Street would see rationalisation and throttle gates, limiting through traffic and Option 3 would be bus-only (with local access) through Main Street, with pedestrianisation between Old Greenhills Road Junction and Greenhills Road Junction.

Option 4 would introduce a one-way system east to west along the Main Street/Old Blessington Road, with local access only, while Option 5 would see Main Street pedestrianised from Old Bawn Road junction to Old Greenhills Road Junction creating a car-free “transformative” village heart.

Gary Walsh, a senior council engineer attached to the Tallaght Village Enhancement Scheme, said that the feedback at the two nights of meetings was “really positive”.

“There was never a strong preference for what scheme would be delivered, but there was more than a consensus that whichever option was taken would be a significant improvement, effectively the ‘do nothing’ option wasn’t seen as a good option,” he said.

The council team are now preparing a “multi criteria analysis” of the five options and the new feedback from the public consultations, to “deliver a Public Realm in Tallaght village for all”.

Mr Walsh said they expect to present the plans in some form or another to councillors in the coming weeks, before seeking further public feedback for any emerging preferred option through a Part 8 Planning consultation in “mid to late January”.

The options and consultation documents can all be viewed on the council website at SDCC.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme