The council have announced plans for two new greening projects in Inchicore – both on the edges of the Bulfin Estate.
The first is at the end of Goldenbridge Terrace and the second is on the corner of Bulfin and Emmet Roads. I’ve gone into more detail below, but both are underloved parts of the area used for informal or illegal parking. The areas will soon see some plants, trees and nature instead.
I’ve been pushing for these works for a long time. I first started work on the project in 2021, bringing a motion to zone the Goldenbridge site as green space, which eventually succeeded in 2022. There was then a battle for funding, but working with progressive staff in the council, we’ve finally got the below designs.
In both cases, public consultation closed on Friday 26th July. You can see my short submission here.
Goldenbridge Terrace greening
There’s a large, gravelled-over area just at the canal, near Goldenbridge Luas stop. It generally looks bad and is used informally for parking – sometimes for commercial vehicles. I had the area rezoned to be improved green space in 2022.
The new plans bring in a new walkway, improved footpaths, two benches, groundcover planting, and some new trees: native pine and birch. An image below shows roughly it would look like.
And below is a map of exactly what’s planned. (You can see a high-quality PDF of the plan here.)
My initial first impression is that it’s a very positive project, but I would like to try retain the existing tree on the west of the area, and that the council should seek to improve the existing gate along the canal.
Bulfin & Emmet Roads greening
The second greening project is the corner of Bulfin and Emmet Roads, between St. Michael’s Church and the Small Changes and Flowerpop shops – just opposite Massey Brothers Funeral Home.
The space is a footpath, but is often used for illegal parking. It looks fairly underloved with patchy tarmac cover. Images and a description of the plan are below:
As you can see, the plans maintain a wide footpath, but add in some metal railings, new grasses, native shrubs, and holly hedge. There will also be a native hawthorn tree.
This is a smaller project than Goldenbridge, but I think it’ll be a really nice addition and improvement to our part of the city.
Please do let me know what you think about these projects: I’m generally supportive, but am open to any thoughts you have. You can let me know via email on michael@pidgeon.ie or join the conversation on the relevant posts on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.