VILLAGE IDEAS TIMELINE TO DATE The following is a brief summary of the Village Ideas from their inception to the present time. SAMRA is very grateful to the Dublin Waste to Energy Community Gain Liaison Committee for their very generous grants to fund the creation of the Village Ideas and the Community Engagement Programme. We wish to thank Grafton Architects for the commitment, enthusiasm, expertise and professionalism of their team over the course of the project. The consultations with Dublin City Council, from their Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare and his senior officials have been enormously positive and we look forward to delivery on the projects over the coming years. CREATION OF THE VILLAGE IDEAS. In 2022 , during the trialling of the summer weekend pedestrianisation of the north-east side of the Green, SAMRA began to consider the issue of looking at the possibilities to improve the public realm of the village and its environs as a whole, including its links to Dublin Bay. The essence of our thoughts was to unlock the village’s enormous potential and further develop its relationship with the Bay. The context for this included the Sandymount Village Design Statement published in 2011, the 2015 designation of Dublin Bay as a UNESCO Biosphere and the Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028. In the Plan, Sandymount is listed for the preparation of a Local Environmental Improvement Plan. The Plan also lists Sandymount as a 'Key Urban Neighbourhood' with policies to improve these villages for the wellbeing of their communities. We considered a very open brief for improvement of the area, and then requested the world renowned Dublin firm, Grafton Architects, to provide us with a proposal for a project to develop various ideas. Armed with their very enthusiastic response , in April 2023 , SAMRA applied to the Dublin Waste to Energy Community Gain Liaison Committee for a grant to fund the Architect's work and later that year, the Committee provided that grant. Over 9 months in 2024 , in liaison with a SAMRA Subcommittee that included a representative of STTCA, Grafton Architects created the ideas. The Grafton Architects Sandymount Village Ideas Presentation of Aug 2024 wonderfully illustrates an integrated holistic plan of ideas for a series of 12 projects to improve the public realm under the key initiatives. In addition, they developed ideas for a number of small moves that would significantly enhance the village including improved signage, additional seating, planting, and interpretive story boards A number of the main project ideas were subsequently developed as priorities for early delivery. CONSULTATIONS WITH DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL SAMRA decided to approach the key stakeholder, Dublin City Council, to gauge their response to the ideas. We believed that there was little point in bringing the ideas to the community if DCC were not willing to even consider them. At the initiative of the then Dublin Lord Mayor, James Geoghegan, SAMRA and Grafton Architects met DCC key executives in November 2024 , including the Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare, the City Engineer and Assistant Chief Executive, John Flanagan and other senior Planning officials. They responded extremely positively to the proposals, the level of professionalism of the approach from a voluntary organisation, the involvement of Grafton Architects and indeed the Village Ideas Project as a whole. They were very complimentary of the work carried out and presented to them, and acknowledged that Sandymount is in need of public realm enhancements . It was agreed that as a next step, DCC’s senior executives would review the priority projects at a high level internally across their Architects, Engineers and Planning Departments. They called a meeting with SAMRA in April 2025 , where they repeated their enthusiasm for the project ideas as a whole, and undertook to develope a scheme for the public improvement of the north east side of the Green, which would include traffic calming, ahead of a future project to traffic calm the central area of the village where five roads meet. Further projects will be considered by DCC over the next number of years based on the Grafton Architect's integrated ideas, as funding becomes available. SAMRA met with Richard Shakespeare and his project team last September , where they presented their initial proposals, which were designed to accommodate both uses of the area, as a one-way road with parking on the Green side, and as a pedestrianised area in summer weekends. They informed us that they would be developing them for a Non Statutory Public Consultation in the coming months. That Consultation has since taken place across Dec 25 and early this January. We have since met DCC in early March to review progress. Their plan is to further develop their scheme and lodge a Part 8 Planning application in April. All going well, they will tender the project late this year and start construction in Q1 2027. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME Over the course of the last three SAMRA AGMs and through our various newsletters, we have described many of the Grafton Architects ideas and our progress with DCC on their plans for delivery of the first project. In parallel with our discussions with DCC, in April 2025 SAMRA planned the next stage of the Ideas project which is a comprehensive Community Engagement Programme. We again applied for funding from the Community Gain Liaison Committee covering a public Presentation by Grafton Architects and the design of a dedicated website providing full details on their creation of their ideas. We were successful in obtaining the grant and work to prepare this Engagement Programme commenced in January 2026. The website will be a live site where updates are provided as projects proceed, and feedback is provided by residents, businesses and other stakeholders.
Dublin Port Company are planning a €1.1 bn development of their South Port, as the last stage of their overall masterplan for the Port. The project originally included New Lo-Lo and Ro-Ro Terminals. A large new ship turning area. A 3,500 Container Storage area, with containers stacked 3 high and associated craneage, on the inner Sandymount Strand side of the Port. A new South Port Access Route, ( SPAR ), linking the North and South Ports including a new bridge across the Liffey, east of the East Link Bridge. A Maritime Village. Some playing fields and a small park. PRE-PLANNING CONSULTATIONS WITH SAMRA In mid 2023, DPC CEO and his senior officials invited SAMRA to a consultation on their proposals , including, in particular, their proposed Container Storage area. We raised a serious concern about this area, pointing out that it would be clearly visible from the Strand, whereas DPC argued that it would not be seen. SAMRA commissioned a survey of the area, and a computer generated image of the storage. This clearly demonstrated that the containers would be visible. We then organised a very well supported petition calling on DPC to remove this element of their proposal. At a further consultation with DPC, they informed SAMRA that they would relocate the storage area to the northside of the development, and would instead use the area as a trailer park. We argued that the area should be used for amenity space including an extension of the Nature Reserve. PLANNING APPLICATION DPC lodged their Application to An Bord Pleanala in mid 2024, which showed the relocation of the Container Storage area, and the trailer park as they had advised to us. SAMRA appointed a Planning Consultant, BPS Planning, to prepare a Submission on our behalf. The 87 page Submission, lodged in September 2024, argued strongly against the trailer park on various grounds, calling instead for the Nature Reserve to be extended and the provision of additional amenity facilities. Our Submission also addressed concerns on various other proposals, including the SPAR with a lack of joined up thinking about the cross river Luas, traffic considerations, construction planning, and community gain provisions including poor cycling infrastructure. We have since made two further Submissions in 2025 in response to further information lodged by DPC with An Bord Pleanala, ( now An Coimisiun Pleanala ). ACP's Decision on the Planning Application is awaited, with no timeframe yet given.
BACKGROUND Flood defences are the No 1 priority for SAMRA on behalf of the community. We have been lobbying consistently for the 6 years for the construction of such defences. In December 2024, Jacobs Engineering was appointed to design the Alleviation Scheme. The project is being led by Dublin City Council on behalf of the Office of Public Works, who are the National Competent Authority for the provision of flood defences. Funding is part of the Government's €1.3bn National Development Plan for flood relief measures. SCOPE OF SCHEME The scheme will consider potential flooding from coastal, drainage and river/streams sources, to alleviate the risk of flooding to the community. It will be developed to provide a determined Standard of Protection (0.5% Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP, 1 in 200 year). CURRENT PROGRESS Public Open Day held in April 2025. Various engineering and environmental tasks are in progress (and will be ongoing throughout the design stage), including surveys, asset condition reporting, and sea level and wave action modelling to inform the design of the coastal protection scheme. Engagement with property owners, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, An Taisce. Design development to second stage of Non-Statutory Public Consultation. NEXT STEPS 2nd Public Consultation - Emerging Coastal Options for defences along Strand Rd. - Q2 2026. 3rd Public Consultation - Preferred Option - Q4 2026. Planning Application to An Coimisuin Pleanala - Q3/Q4 2027. GOVERNMENT ACCELERATING INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY This policy adopted in late 2025 is designed to accelerate the provision of infrastructure which SAMRA assumes will apply to this Flood Alleviation Scheme. The 4 key pillars of the Policy include 1) legal reforms to mitigate delays in statutory approvals for critical infrastructure, 2) statutory approvals reforms to accelerate approvals by the various agencies , 3) obligations on state agencies to coordinate various projects in a particular location and 4) concerted efforts to encourage public buy in to infrastructure projects. SAMRA believes that all these pillars could provide very significant benefits to this project, particularly in terms of timeliness. Legal and approvals reforms are designed to reduce the timeline of the overall Planning processes that will apply to this project. This should hasten the projected construction of the coastal works. The obligations on state agencies to coordinate various projects in a particular location should, in SAMRA's opinion, significantly support the call to include off road cycling infrastructure in this Alleviation Scheme, as SAMRA and others have campaigned for. A solution for the repeated foul sewer discharges to Sandymount Strand, such as an interceptor drain, should also be considered in the scope. This would require various state agencies such as the NTA and Uisce Eireann to engage with DCC and the OPW to deliver these co-location projects. SAMRA believes that public buy in to the project will be significantly enhanced by the provision of such additional projects, which will provide very significant community gains.
