Multi-Use Games Area is a bone of contention

A MULTI-Use Games Area (MUGA) has become a bone of contention with residents concerned their cars are being damaged by footballs and basketballs going over the low boundary fencing.

Cllr Cathal King tabled a motion to raise fencing at the newly-installed MUGA next to Dominic’s Community Centre, saying “its only a matter of time” before resident’s make a claim for damages.

Works commenced at the site in Tallaght for the MUGA consisting of ball stop fencing, football goals, basketball hoops and artificial grass carpet in January.

Stretching out to around 34m long and 16m wide, the MUGA was installed under the first phase of the Teenspace programme being rolled out by South Dublin County Council using capital funding.

The MUGA then opened to the public recently, which brought an end to the more than 10-year campaign for the amenity.

In the St Dominic’s area, a group of young people banded together to campaign for a safe play space, in October 2012.

In the kids’ campaign video, released in January 2014, the young people are videoed standing on the exact spot where the MUGA would come to break ground some eight-years later holding up signs which read “we want somewhere to play”.

In the brainstorming phase, the group visited MUGAs in Fettercairn and Mac Uilliam and “decided that’s what we wanted to get”.

However, while the plans were welcomed for the most part, some residents took issue with the amenity with one telling The Echo that “this is going to change my whole life” earlier this year.

A questionnaire was delivered to addresses in Homelawns and Avonbeg in December 2019, and the council said that “38 responses were received with 32 in favour, and six against” the MUGA.

Since opening, concerns have arisen about the fencing attached to the MUGA.

“Because of the layout of [the MUGA], about eight- to 10-feet in front of the edge of it is a carpark for the housing and apartments directly in front of it,” Cllr Cathal King said at the Tallaght Area Committee Meeting (ACM).

“In other areas where there’s MUGAs, there’s not cars parked directly right in front of where the goals or basketball hoops are.

“If you see from the pictures, the railing is literally waist-high and in the middle of where the basketball hoop is, it rises a bit in the middle but not up to the top of the hoop even.

“It’s very, very low for a MUGA. Whereas a MUGA you would normally have at least an eight-foot railing around the whole lot of it.”

Cllr King explained that “balls are literally coming over that very low railing on a very, very regular basis” and that there is potential for damage to be done to “the bonnet of a car or the windscreen of a car that’s literally parked 10-feet away from it”, which “wouldn’t be happening if the railings was higher”.

There is around 10 properties which have the affected carparking spaces allocated to them, and Cllr King believes “it’s only a matter of time” before the council has claims against them for damage to vehicles.

The councillor also questioned the decision to orientate the MUGA with its goalposts facing the properties and carpark instead of the field, but did say “it’s not now and its’ a very much welcomed amenity to the area”.

Cllr Charlie O’Connor supported the motion, saying the MUGA “is very welcome, even though not everybody was happy”.

Residents in the nearby houses were “certainly not happy” with it being installed and referenced “the annoyance that they’re suffering now having got on with it and allowing the MUGA to go ahead, now they’re being bothered as you described”, says Cllr O’Connor.

“It’s a pity now that there are still difficulties, although I’m glad that it is being well used.

“That’s a good piece of infrastructure that has been put in place by the council.

“There’s a necessity to deal with this because I think people are bothered, people are afraid to park, as they’ve expressed to me.”

In response, Laurence Colleran, South Dublin County Council executive parks superintendent explained that a solution will be found for the issue.

“It’s not possible for the council to raise the height of the railings, these things come with safety certs,” Laurence Colleran told councillors.

“I have gone back to the company who installed it for it for us and said ‘we have an issue there’, and they’re going to look at solutions. They can propose a railing and we can accept it.

“I didn’t mean that it couldn’t be railed off, it can be railed off but we can’t modify play equipment or equipment like that which come with TUV certs.

“There’s definitely a solution for it, the response was definitely to say we are looking at solutions. I’m waiting for a solution from them and prices from them, that’s where we’re at, at the moment.

“It would be my intention to get it dealt with as soon as possible.

“It is a fantastic much-needed facility down there, we’ve been years in this ACM trying to get something for teenagers down there and I really want it to be successful and want it to bed in well.

“We are taking this seriously and we do intend to sort the issue.”

Councillors at the Tallaght ACM all agreed to Cllr King’s motion, which calls for the council to heighten the railings.