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Sunday Times – 24th September 2006
An Taisce in war on lurid shopfronts
Colin CoyleTHEY style themselves as shops “designed for the way we live today†but An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, has claimed that the “increasingly brash and lurid†shopfronts of convenience stores are destroying the fabric of Dublin.
The planning watchdog has filed documents with the city council claiming that Spar, Centra and Londis “are showing an increasing contempt and disregard for planning laws and requirementsâ€, and that their obtrusive, gaudy facades are ruining the capital’s historic streetscapes.Kevin Duff, a spokesman for An Taisce, says Centra and Spar are the chief offenders. “These shops are openly flouting planning regulations and there is now a significant level of unauthorised development and non-compliance with planning authority decisions in Dublin, where a new convenience store seemingly opens on a weekly basis,†he said.
“We’ve identified at least 20 examples of these stores disregarding planning regulations. The city council is reluctant to get tough with them and doesn’t want to get involved in messy legal battles, but the situation is getting out of hand. It’s only a matter of time before it spreads to other urban areas.â€
The city council has issued enforcement orders against a number of convenience stores in recent months and admits that there have been a growing number of complaints from the public about the visual impact of such shops.
“We have taken action against several shops recently, forcing them to remove unauthorised signs,†said Rory O’Byrne, an enforcement officer. “We’re not actively targeting convenience stores, but we do investigate any reports of unauthorised development.â€
An Taisce claims that when convenience stores open, they sometimes use cheap plastic signage emblazoned with their logos and claim that it is a temporary arrangement.
Duff said: “There is a Londis on O’Connell Street, right in the heart of an area with its own special planning controls, that has had a temporary sign outside it for almost 18 months. The policy appears to be to establish themselves visually with a big, bold sign and leave it in place for as long as possible.â€
Londis admitted that erecting a permanent sign on its O’Connell Street store was taking longer than expected.
Spar has also been known to erect bold plastic “temporary†shopfronts, Duff claims. “The Spar on Patrick Street had ‘temporary’ signage for eight months. It has finally been removed and replaced with a stainless steel sign, but it’s completely different to what was agreed with the city council.â€
Spar, Duff said, has opened several shops without securing planning permission for their facades first.
“Over the past year a significant proportion of their stores in the city centre have been fitted with an internally illuminated protruding plastic box fascia. These boxes have a cheap downmarket appearance and fly in the face of basic shopfront design principles,†he said.
Spar claims that it has a strong tradition of working closely with local authorities in all large European cities and is happy with its relationship with Dublin city council. “Spar takes it responsibilities in relation to planning very seriously,†it said.
“We are in continuous dialogue with the city council through our architects in relation to store frontage and signage.â€
Centra claims that although its stores are individually owned by independent retailers, “store fronts have to conform to an agreed brand identity and quality standard as well as conforming to the planning requirements of the relevant local authorityâ€.
Duff cites a Spar on Mayor Street and a Centra on Capel Street as two models of restraint in shopfront design. “Both of those stores have discreet, simple designs, but these constitute a minority,†he said.
I see from a recent article in the (London) Times that Ken Livingstone is proposing bikes should have numberplates.
The Times, July 28, 2006
Cycle numberplate plan to catch lawless riders
By Nicola WoolcockCYCLISTS in London could be made to fit numberplates to their bikes under plans being drawn up by Ken Livingstone, the capital’s mayor.
All bicycles would be registered so that riders breaking the law, by cycling on pavements or going through red lights, could be caught on traffic cameras. Mr Livingstone is also investigating a possible ban on jaywalking, which is illegal in some countries.
Speaking on the London radio station LBC yesterday, Mr Livingstone said: “I think, I’m now persuaded, we should actually say that bikes and their owners should be registered.
“There should be a numberplate on the back so that the ones breaking the law, we can get them off the cameras. It’s the only way you can do it.”
Mr Livingstone was responding to a listener’s question about what the mayor would do to stop cyclists using the capital’s pavements.
He added: “You’ve got to have legislation, but I think, most likely we’ll look at putting up what’s called a private Bill and I think I can get the London boroughs — all of them, irrespective of parties — to most likely go along with that and have a proper vehicle/bicycle registration.”
Asked if that meant licence plates for bicycles, he said: “Yes, so you can catch the ones — the ones that are obeying the law, it makes no difference — but the ones who are going over red lights, driving on pavements, you get ’em.”
When asked about banning jaywalking — whereby people cross the road other than at zebra crossings or when a “green man” sign is shown — he said: “In America jaywalking is illegal, but in America you have this situation that at virtually every busy junction there is a zebra crossing and as the lights change the pedestrian has priority and only when they’ve crossed can then the cars turn.
“Now when John Redwood [the Conservative frontbencher] recently came up with some transport policies, that was the only one that I thought we should look at, and we are looking at that.
“But if you are going to ban jaywalking you’re going to have to have a lot more actual formal pedestrian crossings.”
Concern has increased over the behaviour of cyclists because of the rising number of bicycles on the roads in London.
Figures released last month showed that the number of people cycling in the capital had risen by 50 per cent in the past five years. Between 1993 and 2003 the level remained almost unchanged, but there are now 450,000 cycle trips in London every day.
It is thought that concerns about pollution, overcrowded and expensive public transport and the wish to keep fit have inspired the boom. Fear among commuters about using buses and the Underground after the July 7 terrorist attacks is also believed to be a factor.
Transport for London claims that investment in the London Cycle Network will mean that there will be 560 miles of cycle routes across London by 2010. Its annual expenditure on cycling has risen to
Yes, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about cycle lane design. But I’m not “expecting a car to sit behind another car turning right, instead of nipping into the cycle lanes”. I am expecting some cars to do so, and a corner of me even wants them to do so occasionally when it’s safe (to crush the glass to powder)! What I also want, however, is to make car drivers as self-conscious and as careful when they do so as they would be if they were breaking a red light… look to see is it safe, double-check, triple-check, make extra sure there are no cyclists anywhere near (as well as no garda
@a boyle wrote:
What i am really trying to get is that this is a fairly simple thing to do , which can improve things without any perceptable disimprovement to car drivers.
But, being selfish, it would be a perceptible disimprovement to me, a cyclist. I’d either be slowed down significantly, or would have to become ‘one-of-those-irresponsible-cyclists-who-don’t-use-the-cycle-lanes-and-deserve-no-sympathy-if-they-get-knocked-down (TM)’. Nice red stripes (positioned appropriately, which is a problem on several roads at the moment), and policed with zeal – perhaps accompanied by a major ad campaign* – so cars simply don’t enter them would be a far better solution for me. The law is there. If someone built up half a dozen penalty points in a week from driving in a cycle lane, surely they’d change their behaviour? And it would be such easy pickings for the garda
@a boyle wrote:
Ok so what we need to do in that case is increase the time alloted to pedestrians (and consequently cyclists).
Still will never be as much as for cars. I don’t think cyclists who cycle for efficiency rather than pleasure are going to buy it.
@a boyle wrote:
I think the cumbersome nature of making certain turns ought to be outweighed by the fact that despite the growth of different areas in the city , the vast majority of people go in one direction — town.
But we also have to get home again!:)
I sound horribly negative here – and I don’t mean to be really. On the whole, I enjoy cycling round Dublin.
Both tracks on one side of the road would certainly work to give enough width to pass, but I’m not sure of the implications for actually travelling – e.g. if you wanted to make a left turn and your cycle track was actually on the right hand side of the road, you’d have to cross all the traffic going both directions to do so. Although at a glance you might think that’s no different from the current situation where you’re on the left of the road and want to turn right, in fact it is worse because you’ve not got the benefit of filter arrows etc. that are set up to allow cars to turn, as would be the case if the bike were on the same side of the road as the cars. You’d end up having to cross with the pedestrians. And there’s never going to be continuity between all the streets for which side of the road the cycle lane is on. It’s a nice thought, but I think it’d end up making cycling desperately cumbersome, so people whose primary motivation in cycling is to get around the city efficiently just would stick on the road with the cars. And then the car drivers would get frustrated because we’re not in the cycle lanes.
A parallel rather than angled barrier, well spaced out, would certainly be better than what’s currently there in the photo, but as I said before, my personal preference would be for no barrier – just proper disciplining of the cars so they don’t venture into the cycle track – i.e. religious awarding of the penalty points for this offence every time it happens. My preference is partly based on the glass problem, which I have to say is a bit of a bugbear of mine. No barrier means the cycle track would get swept as the sweeping machines go round the road verges (and also crushed by the drivers who inevitably do stray into the cycle track).
In fairness, I find cars better about observing cycle tracks on the road than pedestrians are about observing cycle tracks on the pavement. In general, pedestrians seem to wander round oblivious to their surroundings, whereas at least most drivers are paying some attention!
@ctesiphon wrote:
Also, the pic you posted shows yet another design flaw in bike lanes. the concrete bits are aligned in one direction only, so getting off that lane is easy mid-lane, but joining it mid-lane is impossible unless the cyclist stops and turns more than 90 degrees.
Yes, this is my problem with these. By the time you’ve stopped the bike and manoeuvred back into the lane, whoever you passed out has caught up again (unless you cycle for a good bit on the road to build up enough distance so that even when you stop to get back onto the lane they’re still well behind – and having to stay on the road like this defeats the purpose of the cycle lane in the first place). The lanes are just hopelessly inflexible the way they’re built at the moment.
@a boyle wrote:
Move the cycle lanes to one side of the road only , and seperate the space from the rest of the road with concrete bumps , making sure they are just high enough to discourage all but the most hardy of drivers from entering the lane……Instead we have these red strips that actually seem to attract danger instead of warding off.
I have 2 problems with the concrete barriers:
(a) The lanes are usually narrow, so if you get stuck behind a slooooooow cyclist it’s very difficult to pass them out]weeks[/I], again often not easy to swerve around!I quite like the red strips insofar as when trying to swerve round the cars, pedestrians etc. at least the red strip is something to gesture at , to show them they’re encroaching on cyclists’ space. Having said that, many of them are really badly designed/positioned.
@ctesiphon wrote:I heard of a case in Britain (I think) where a driver argued successfully in court that although he was parked in a cycle lane, as nobody had seen him drive onto it, nobody could prove that he had.
:rolleyes:
“Driving on a cycle track” is one of the 31 new penalty points offences that came into force recently (one penalty point). It strikes me that it could be used for all those people who park in the cycle lane because they couldn’t be bothered walking a wee bit further. After all, in order to park there, they had to drive into it. Or do you think that would work? Could the clampers report them to the Gardai and/or provide the Gardai with the digital photos they seem to take when they clamp someone?
@Graham Hickey wrote:
Would you not want to conserve the original glass cobalt?
Yes I would, if that’s what it is, and it’s possible. But many of the panes are cracked or broken. The house has been horribly neglected. I’m not sure whether some of the intact panes are original… they look very uniform (to my untutored eye, and through all the dirt and masking tape!). If I got somebody like Bolger’s out, would they be able to tell me what’s original glass & what’s not? Or is there any easy way of telling?
Don’t worry – heavy curtains are on the way as an initial measure! But I won’t be sitting in a darkened room like Miss Havisham during the day! And unfortunately I’ve no south facing windows – house is East (front) – West (back).
As regards individually thermostat controlled rooms, that would be ideal, and a long term plan. But my budget won’t stretch that far at the moment. One step at a time…
Thanks Devin.
Can you name any examples where it’s been done well, or better still, the practitioners that did it?
I don’t want it to look ‘clunky’, but since the windows are just 2 big panes over 2 rather than lots of little panes, it should have less tendency that way,,,, what do you think?
Will also follow up Bolgers for Ventrolla.There actually is a supposed cycle lane on O’Connell Street – it’s a narrow band beside the median (both northbound and southbound). Unfortunately, it doesn’t extend the full length of the street, and it’s so badly marked that hardly anyone knows it’s there – probably added to by the fact that it’s the ‘outside’ (right hand) lane, rather than on the left as in most other cases.
For cyclists, it’s next to useless – motorists just drive in it.Great thread – really informative.
I’ve just bought a property with sash windows which are in pretty poor shape. (2 over 2, with a slightly arched top.) I’d like to get them restored/conserved as well as possible. At the same time, they obviously need to be burglar proof, and ideally as energy-efficient as possible (at the moment, most of them are stuck open, and held together with masking tape!), while fitting in with conservation practice.
Would it be the consensus that double glazing just can’t be done well enough (narrow enough gap) to be suitable for old sash windows?
What about the Ventrolla system?
Or are there any other suitable techniques to be considered?Also, can anyone recommend a joiner to do the restoration? I’ve looked up the building skills register on the Irish Georgian Society’s website, and there are several joiners listed for Dublin (below). Has anyone worked with any of them or can you recommend one?
Thanks for all advice.
Joiners
Mr. John Bolger *
W. & J. BOLGER (Conservation) Ltd.
18 Ardee Street Dublin 8. 01 4530377. Fax 01 4540005.Mr. Jonathan Guy Breen
J.G.B. Carpentry
20 Avoca Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. 01 2875858. 086 8697433. jgbcarpentry@msn.comMr. Declan Connaughton
Confor Joinery
rere 5 Williams Park Rathmines Dublin 6. 01 4964396. 088 2739196. Fax 01 4967286Mr. Eric Conroy*
The Wooden Window Company
142, Alpine Heights Clondalkin Dublin 24. 01 4570656/8728622. 087 440229Mr. Karl Crowe*
Advance Joinery Services Ltd.
8A Henrietta Lane Dublin 1. 01 8722026. Fax 01 8722110. advancejoinery@oceanfree.netMr. Ruary Kavanagh
Kavanagh Carpentry/Joinery
16, Dargle Valley Marley Grange Rathfarnham Dublin 16. 01 – 4935 140Mr. Philip Kennedy*
Unit 4., K.C.R. Industrial Estate, Ravensdale park Kimmage Dublin 12. 087 6816900. philipkennedy@eircom.netMr. Paul King*
142, Alpine Heights Clondalkin Dublin 22. 01 4570656Mr. Paul Lawrence*
No. 2 May Cottages, (off Nelson Street), Dublin 7. 087 2458303. woodenwork@hotmail.comMr. John Malone
911 Sarto Lawn, Sutton Co. Dublin. 085 7291939Mr. Joe McNally*
Joe McNally Joinery Ltd.
Walshestown Lusk Co. Dublin. 01 8433022/259. Fax 01 8433367. jmacnallyjoinery@eircom.netMr. Joseph Moore
The Original Box Sash Window Company http://www.boxsash.com
139 Mount Merrion Avenue Blackrock Co. Dublin. 01 2888670. Fax 01 2836943. admin@boxsash.comMr. Dermot O’Rourke*
D.B.O.R. Ltd.
Unit 38a Baldoyle Industrial Estate Baldoyle Dublin 13. 01 8393274. Fax 01 8323466Mr. Kevin Smith*
7 Manor Road Palmerstown Dublin 20. 01 6260538. Fax 01 6260538. 087 2431888Yes, they are. From today’s Irish Times:
The event would not have been complete without a baptism, and thanks to the decision to erect temporary fountains on either side of the new structure for the ceremony, this was duly achieved.
When Mr Ahern led the inaugural walkover, a sea-borne breeze ensured it wasn’t just the bridge that got a wetting. The fountains had to be turned down on the up-wind side before the walk-over could be safely completed.😀
