Dublin Cycling Campaign decries the recent media storm over business lobby group IBEC’s recent objection to the City Centre Transport Plan. Business group IBEC have issued a statement calling for a delay in implementing the plan.

IBEC say there should be ‘further detailed consultation’. But the City met with IBEC and other business interests on November 27th, the plan was publicly posted from September 13th to December 1st last, and submitted on by many organisations that you’d expect to be highly sensitive to the effects of the Plan: Of approximately 64 written submissions published online by the City Council, at least 9 of them are from businesses with core income from car parking: ParkRite, QPark, APCOA, Irish Parking Association, Trinity Street carpark, Grafton carpark, Irish Life carpark, Fleet Street carpark, Dublin City Centre Traders’ Alliance, Brown Thomas Arnotts.

These submissions do express concerns, primarily around the Plan ‘resulting in difficulties/ circuitous routes/ longer journeys … for car drivers’. But surprisingly, even the Irish Parking Association didn’t call for a postponement of implementation in their written submission, while even APCOA Parking company didn’t fundamentally object: ‘APCOA Parking are working with many cities throughout Europe in designing the future transport challenges and the role car parks can play in the changing face of city centres. We would be happy to participate in a constructive way as this plan is being developed and thereafter throughout the implementation stage’, the APCOA submission says.

A huge majority of people who access Dublin do so by public or active transport. Enabling on-time, frequent PT, active travel is inarguably more important than slightly longer journeys some for car drivers. The Campaign find it bizarre that business owners, organisations and their professional consultants (Sheehan, Waterman Moylan and others) just don’t see this through their windscreens.

As a Campaign we’d ask, What public consultation was made in 1982 when the lethal, mutl-lane gyratory systems were reinforced along the Quays, by the all-male committee in our image above!? [RTÉ Archives] We have drifted unthinkingly into letting Dublin become a brutally car-dominated cityscape, and this plan is only a small step in reclaiming space for people.

As our chair Úna Morrison has been saying across media this week (image above), we encourage the City Council to take into account the huge public endorsement given by the public to the Plan during consultation, and proceed as scheduled.