Residents vent anger as scramblers continue to wreak havoc in local parks
By Hayden Moore
AN ELDERLY woman on her daily walk of Tymon Park had to take to a bush for safety to avoid being hit by three scramblers.
Another resident’s seven-year-old daughter had a near-miss with an out of control bike, as the scrambler situation is out of control across the county.
People on scramblers have been accessing Tymon Park
The incident involving the elderly woman from Templeogue happened on New Year’s Day when she entered into the popular park at the Faughs GAA club entrance just off Wellington Lane, and did a loop of the lake before the three scramblers took up the footpath and almost ran her over.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Echo: “I felt terrorised and I honestly thought they were going to kill me because they weren’t moving.
“I had to jump in at the hedging to get out of their way, like they could kill you and they would just keep driving,” she said after the incident.
According to the regular user of the public park, the three bikes came across the footbridge from the National Basketball Arena – with one even having a young child on the back.
“I’m scared to go into the park now in case something bad happens even though I would usually go for a walk there most days, so I can’t even do that anymore without feeling scared and terrorised.”
As reported in The Echo recently, over 200 residents in Kingswood signed a letter that was sent to local TD’s and the Minister for Justice that called for action to be taken, with Cllr Pamela Kearns also putting forward a motion at the Rathfarnham/ Templeogue Area Committee meeting on Tuesday regarding the problem in Tymon.
In response to Cllr Kearns’ motion, the Council stated that “plans are in place to identify access points where scramblers enter the park” and will focus on “eliminating these” with the installation of a mixture of fencing and kissing gates among other barriers.
“The intended target area will focus on access points near the Basketball arena,” they said.
“A High Level Task Force has been established with representation from the Dublin local authorities, the Gardai, Dept of Justice & Equality and Motorcross.”
At their Area Committee meeting in November, it was noted that the Attorney General was considering amending existing Road Traffic legislation to extend the “power of the Gardai to deal with relevant scrambler/quad issues”.
This ongoing issue with scrambler bikes has plagued the county, with residents in the Fettercairn area waking up at all hours of the night to the noise of the bikes while others in Kilnamanagh and Tymon have had to swerve in traffic to avoid colliding with them.
In Dodder Valley Park, residents have been tormented for months with a “gang” of men “wrecking the park from seven to eight” every night.
One of the residents, who also asked to remain anonymous, recounted a near miss between an out of control scrambler and her young daughter on her peddle bike.
She told The Echo: “We were coming through the park from the Bawnville Road side towards Firhouse and my daughter, who was seven at the time, cycled on to the bridge ahead of me.
“Your man on the bike came flying around onto the bridge as she got to the end of it, she got a bit of a fright but the fact no one can do anything about this is the real problem – it’s going to take a death for something to be done.
“They just don’t give a s**t! We’re here trying to live our lives and make a life of our own and they’re just flying around, they’re after taking action in Finglas where they’re taking the bikes off their hands and confiscating them, why can’t they do that here?”
This is in reference to the major crackdown from An Garda Síochána in both Cabra and Finglas over the past number of weeks that saw them seize 11 motorbikes and arrest five on Christmas Day.
