Thanks, Fingal County Council.

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Full marks to FCC for the fireworks display last night, once again it was stunning

Aye huge crowd, very safe, awesome fireworks, some of the best I have seen and I have seen alot over the years, Kids loved it.

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

We passed it yesterday, they were rolling out the new grass. It's really lovely

It does look well. It's weird how that area was hidden behind a hedge until recently.

I also spotted the deer at the roundabout yesterday. They're very discrete and you'd easily miss them. Very nice too. All helping to improve the town and good to see.

Well done fingal for gritting and salting the roads in the nth county, I had to get into town tonight and the roads up until Whitehall were clear it was only after there that the roads were very bad

Great job done around NCD over the last 5 days. Well done Fingal

Well done Fingal on the Leinster pipe band championship held in Swords castle last Saturday. The setting was superb and a huge hit with all the bands and spectators. Bands from Limerick, Waterford Wexford, Carlow, Tyrone Laoise and Dublin competed. The weather was also very good.

Hats off to Cllr David O;Connor who put huge time into the event and to Darragh Butler, Mayor Mary McCamley and the staff in Fingal C.C who made the day a huge success. It is expected to be an even bigger event in 2019

More of this please!!

https://www.facebook.com/ocallaghancian/posts/1893951284057263

Fingal Co.Co are accepting at their depots in Coolmine and Estuary, combustible materials ( beds, sofas, doors, etc. ) free of charge from Wednesday 24th to Wed 31st October.
Large Vans and Commercial Vehicles will not be allowed.

rushfan wrote: »

I had noticed a couple of cars, seemingly abandoned on Dublin Rd, Swords recently. So, I tweeted FCC, got a request to DM them, where I got a contact email. Forwarded on photos of said vehicle, one was removed within a couple of days. I waited a period of time before emailing re the second car, again it was removed within approx. 30 hrs. So, kudos to FCC. And I emailed my gratitude on both occasions.

Are you able to share that email. We've a few in our estate that are there the last 2 yrs with tax and insurance disc out since 2016

Bit late, but deserves a mention.

I wrote to FCC suggesting they change the traffic light sequence at the airside crossroads.

I suggested a left green arrow for cars turning into Baroimhe when the lights were green for cars exiting Baroimhe.

In fairness to them, they eventually did it and it makes a huge difference to how long you have to sit at those lights.

buttercups88 wrote: »

Fair play was thinking the wait wasn't as long. What email did you use?

I wrote an old fashioned letter to the roads department!

No. 4 wrote: »

I've reported abandoned cars on fixmystreet with similar results.
https://fixmystreet.ie/

You can check the history for your local area too which is good.

I've done that the last 2 yrs and the cars are still there. I also emailed the above and no reply. Guess they'll just sit there forever.

Fair play to Fingal for building the outdoor structures on Swords Main Street for dining, having a coffee etc. Should have been done years ago, and depending on the impact on traffic, pedestrianising the whole road should be considered too imho. Thanks to Dizzyblonde and pinkypinky for unravelling the mystery!

https://www.fingal.ie/news/council-completes-significant-public-realm-initiative-swords?fbclid=IwAR3yzAqugFuLIU7W-rJRim0A9J4HzjghtiUXIZowFtAxRxZEHuPJPSlKUho

Inquitus wrote: »

Fair play to Fingal for building the outdoor structures on Swords Main Street for dining, having a coffee etc. Should have been done years ago, and depending on the impact on traffic, pedestrianising the whole road should be considered too imho. Thanks to Dizzyblonde and pinkypinky for unravelling the mystery!

https://www.fingal.ie/news/council-completes-significant-public-realm-initiative-swords?fbclid=IwAR3yzAqugFuLIU7W-rJRim0A9J4HzjghtiUXIZowFtAxRxZEHuPJPSlKUho

Would be fantastic but very difficult to justify without some sort of new road across the Ward river. Only Main St. and the R132 join North and South Swords in both directions.

Inquitus wrote: »

There's a couple of routes between the Rathbeale Rd and Brackenstown Rd going both ways, and you can cut thru past the Old Schoolhouse in one direction.

All are from Brackenstown Road and north of it though.
Anybody travelling from Rathbeale Road / Swords Manor / Brackenstown to River Valley / Ridgewood and even Boroimhe would be forced onto the R132 putting massive pressure on Seatown Rd. and Watery Lane.

The proposed western road should be extended to link to Forrest Road somehow, it's difficult to see exactly how that might be done but for sure River Valley should be linked to Brackenstown Rd. through the park, it's only 650m and would inolve relocating 2 pitches, not much more.
There is ample space to reinstate them and the parkland.
But looking at the SFTS it doesn't seem to have even been considered?

https://www.fingal.ie/sites/default/files/2019-10/20190404_sfts_swords_sub_area_report_v1.19_20190404.pdf

pinkypinky wrote: »

That's the bit to pedestrianise - still leave the turn at the Garda station out to the Pavilions intact, and keep the section outside the Council offices. It would require rerouting the buses though...

They could route them as I suggested above but it wouldn't be popular with short sighted (very) locals who would just scream murder about pitches being dug up despite the fact they would be replaced. There is no "common good" in Irish planning, it's either politically popular or it's not.

It would be a lot of traffic to put onto such a small road but how else do you pedestrianize Main Street when only two main roads (including it) link two halves of a town with 45,000 people - spiraling towards 60,000 in the 2022 census depending on whether Kinsealy/Drinan/Holywell are counted.
Is it realistic to push all traffic going from the North to South onto the R132 alone?

I take your point about Boroimhe, both junctions at either end of it are badly congested. The planning permission for Lidl should have never been allowed, that should have been a link from River Valley to Pinnock Hill / R132, with a bit of realigning to avoid a 5 spur roundabout since they'll all eventually be replaced with 4-way intersections come Metro.

Airside junction could be grade separated if it was really required with just 2 or 3 CPO's (and of those one is an Airbnb and one is Parfit), but that would really never happen. Far too political.

Could this magical western road link up with Forrest Road to cross the river and create a full bypass?

It's a poorly designed mess caused by bad planning from the very start I suppose.

Anyway, pedestrianizing the main street would be nice if it could be made practical.

T-Maxx wrote: »

No it's not. Your knee jerk reaction on the other hand...

It's the only realistic option although the vertical alignment is problematic.

Knee jerk reaction:D:D:D

Give over. It didn't take too much analysis to glance at a map and realise that its a terrible idea.

If you think its a good idea, i suggest you have no understanding on the area and / or respect for local amenities.

If you want to solve the traffic situation by building a new road then that's where it should be from a transportation point of view. Yes the pitches will be compromised, yes there will be knock-on effects, but that's the nature of building roads infrastructure. It's how this are managed to mitigate the effects that's important. To throw your hands up in the air and assume a do-nothing approach will not solve it.

rushfan wrote: »

I had emailed Fingal CC back in Oct re graffiti in both the Northbound & Southbound cycle tunnels at the M1/R132 interchange. Got an email back telling me they'd be back in touch when someone was out to inspect it, which did'nt fill me with hope. I cycled through both sections on Tues, and all affected area were painted over. The area looks so much better. And I emailed my gratitude. Thanks FCC!

You didn't also ask them to replace some of the light bulbs on the northern one by any chance?