Plans are being put together to improve Dublin City’s parks, with sculptures, tea-rooms and added bicycle facilities among the current proposals.

Dublin City has over 120 public parks of various sizes, with a recent survey of over 1,000 local residents showing that 42% of people visit their local park weekly.

Of these, 26% went there daily, while only 2% of people never used their local park at all.

Interestingly, 90% of those who responded visited parks other than their own local facility.

According to the Dublin Inquirer, new plans are now being put in place to maximise the use of green space in the city and some of the proposals in the report include:

• Establishing a new sculpture park similar to Museé Rodin in Paris and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
• Building new tea rooms facilities in Merrion Square and Bushy Park and possibly Mountjoy Square and Blessington Street Basin
• Providing bicycle parking facilities in all inner-city parks
• Increasing the amount of outdoor seating in the city centre
• Providing new parks in the Liberties
• Distributing art more evenly among parks
• Putting a park in during the redevelopment of St Teresa’s Gardens
• Including parks in all future housing developments
• Planting trees along Dublin’s streets, especially along the quays

The report also noted that:

“The provision of public toilets in Dublin has proved too difficult due to anti-social activity. All stand-alone facilities within city parks have failed and further provision will only be made as part of other facilities within parks such as cafes/tearooms or sports buildings, where active management and monitoring exists.”

In the main, parks such as the Phoenix Park, St Stephen’s Green, Iveagh Gardens, Merrion Square, Herbert Park, St Anne’s and the Phoenix Park feature prominently as go-to destinations.

This strategy is currently under consultation.

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