Removal of Street Furniture

Isn’t DCC’s aversion to skaters more to do with potential claims from the parents of kids with cracked heads and broken limbs?

Yes that wax is lovely stuff, great to sit on and even better when it gets ground into your clothes – thanks skater-dude

The story with the fountain, according to a council official, is that the wind is blowing the water outside the drainage system – the system having been put there to catch the water. So the water is blowing onto the footpath and the council is promising to deal with that.
The whole thing is modelled on a jet fountain in Paris, apparently. (I bet that one works better) The water is designed to go 1.5 metres in the air, and be caught by the drainage. But they never factored in the wind…

Incidentally here’s a piece on the street furniture situation that appeared in the Sunday Times:

SKATEBOARDERS have struck again. Dublin city council has been forced to remove four granite seats from recently pedestrianised South King Street because the skaters were making such a nuisance of themselves to passers-by.
First the council installed anti- skateboard bars around the already graffiti-covered benches near the Gaiety Theatre. The skateboarders still did their stunts. So the council reluctantly decided to remove the benches, which cost about €10,000, and they are now in storage. “It’s a bad defeat for pedestrianisation,” one council official admitted.

Skateboarders are an increasing menance in cities. Dun Laoghaire and Cork have specific problems, and the Bank of Ireland in Baggot Street, Dublin, is beset by them. The Central Bank had to put a big railing around its building to deter the baseball-cap-backwards brigade. This appears to be the first time that street furniture designed for general use has had to be removed because of the nuisance.

Plans are being discussed to set up dedicated skateboard parks, including one in Lucan — high time for one in Dublin. Once they are in place, skateboarding on streets should be made illegal, with hefty fines for offenders.

s middle position is the only reasonalbe one here. its not such a bad hobby and its admirable they only ever try and do tricks they can’t do. it would be good for there to be a skate park in town, skate board parks are great to watch. on the other hand, they do make a mess of seats etc, they are frightening to some people, particularily old people for whom a fall is very serious and for people with children, its noisy. let them use some public area and design others to make skateboarding impossible, make sure there are always some part of parks where there is no skating.

Originally posted by AndrewP
Isn’t DCC’s aversion to skaters more to do with potential claims from the parents of kids with cracked heads and broken limbs?

Not all State bodies have this aversion. The Broadcasting Commission have just moved into offices alongside the Grand Canal (on the road between Lower & Upper Mount Street) and every evening when I pass by, there is a hoard of skaters using the edge of the flower bed to skate along in full view of the seurity guard in the building.

As a 33 year old skater I’ve been dealing with this issue for more than half my life and there is a solution. The knee-jerk council and business reaction to skaters is generally to make everything non skate-able using skate stopper devices. Despite the breaking of their own planning regulations (Civic Offices) and preservation orders ( BOI baggot St) and the added danger these devices present they persevere with this regressive approach.
It doesn’t work , skatestopper devices are easily removed and skaters will allways addapt to whatever the street envoironment presents them with.
The answer to the problem as other citys like Barcelona and Auckland have shown is to skate-PROOF street furniture. This involves the addition of protective metal edgings to benchs curbs and street furniture.
Hence no need for curb wax , no wax on your clothes,no chips or splinters (skate trucks are aluminium which will not damage steel).
With no public skateparks in Dublin (theres only one in the whole country, in Waterford and it’s a disatarous case of bad design and lack of research and consultation) there is no choice but to street skate. Do DCC expect us to give up skateboarding? Cork city council certainly want that as they are trying to pass a bylaw banning skateboarding !!
As a skater I am biased , I think it’s the most enjoyable ,creative and worthwhile pursuits that anyone can possibly do and I fail to see how anyone can be small minded enough to think that it is something that should be banned!
Can someone please explain to me why rolling around on a lump of wood is a social evil that should be made illegal?
Every week kids get beaten up by irate security guards, threatened with arrest and have their boards confiscated by Gardai not to mention the hassle they get from druggies, drunks and the shiny tracksuit brigade.
Do they deserve this for becoming skateboarders?

Its nothing to do with the current Government…. or any government. Its a Local Authority issue and the fact is nearly all LAs of whatever political hue are just not interested in providing facilities like these. In fact most LAs fail miserably when it come to providing any facilities at all… be it swimming pools, playgrounds, public toilets, community centres. Its a general ignorance of what a Council can achiie with adequate resources…which of course none of them have because there is no local taxation.

The primary reason for opposition is insurance. Solve that one and things will change. Not overnight, but gradually.

Mind you, this website is obviously viewed by those in authority as after my last post, stating that skaters were using the railings outside the Broadcasting Commission with impugnity, they were gone that evening and haven’t returned.

The main stumbling block is as ever insurance. Irish public bodies mutual (council insurance providers) are looking for a €25’000 a year premium with an excess of over €300’000 !!!!! The exess on the waterford park is only €5000. Why they are seeking such hugely different excesses between Dublin and Waterford I have no idea.
The other main problem is over estimation of costs. The Fingal County council feasability report on providing a skatepark in the borough quoted hugely inflated costs for the provision of a basic skatepark. I have written to them questioning where these figures came from but have had no reply.
Notjim you’re right that a skatepark doesn’t have to be in a park, there is skateparks in warehouses under motorway flyovers next to playing pitches under grandstands and in a multitude of various sites throughout the world. I do think that a mini ramp (small halfpipe ) would be an excellent idea for stephens green though ,it’d be something interesting and attractive for non skaters to watch too and a nicely built wooden ramp looks quite nice in a park.

Hi Phil,
From memory, that Sunday Times piece was published on July 6, 2003 in the Sue Denham column.
I’m not sure what you mean by when the quotes start. Here’s the entire piece. Quotes from officials are cleared marked.

SKATEBOARDERS have struck again. Dublin city council has been forced
to remove four granite seats from recently pedestrianised South King
Street because the skaters were making such a nuisance of themselves
to passers-by.

First the council installed anti-skateboard bars around the already
graffiti-covered benches near the Gaiety Theatre. The skateboarders
still did their stunts. So the council reluctantly decided to remove
the benches, which cost about Euro 10,000, and they are now in
storage. “It’s a bad defeat for pedestrianisation,” one council
official admitted.

Skateboarders are an increasing menance in cities. Dun Laoghaire and
Cork have specific problems, and the Bank of Ireland in Baggot
Street, Dublin, is beset by them. The Central Bank had to put a big
railing around its building to deter the baseball-cap-backwards
brigade. This appears to be the first time that street furniture
designed for general use has had to be removed because of the
nuisance.

Plans are being discussed to set up dedicated skateboard parks,
including one in Lucan – high time for one in Dublin. Once they are
in place, skateboarding on streets should be made illegal, with hefty
fines for offenders.