Smithfield Update

Dublin City Council has suspended Phase Two of Smithfield development from the capital works programme in 2009. This means that construction works on the area of Smithfield south of the LUAS Line and Arran Street will not be completed in the short term. We are continuing to push for improvements on the Square. We are assured that there are other minor works being planned to enhance the space.
We are also seeking increased community participation in events being organised in Smithfield.
We received the following report in relation to the management of the Smithfield Square. If you would like to comment on this, please contact us at the above contact details.

Report
Last summer improvement works were carried out on the existing green area behind the facility building. The existing trees were pruned, new paving, walkways and seating installed and a new Friday market has commenced in this area.
The Parks Department have also provided a number of planted tubs to green the North King Street end of the plaza. The City Council is currently identifying possible interventions on the main space including lighting, planting and events infrastructure. Some of these works will go ahead in later in 2009 and 2010 as there is available funding for this
There is an existing system of local consultation in relation to events. Where possible information meetings are held regarding events and representatives of the various communities and interested parties are invited to these meetings where presentations are made or appropriate documentation circulated.
Organisers themselves would, depending on the nature of the event have a certain responsibility to liaise with residents or businesses in the direct vicinity of the event in order to ensure that any potentially negative impact would be identified and minimised as far as possible.
In our current Call for Proposals process for the running of events there is a requirement for community benefit in the local and civic context for all events supported by Dublin City Council and through this process the local communities can get involved in participation and possibly other aspects of the event. This has been the practice since the introduction of the process 3 years ago. We are examining ways of formalising a consultation group representative of all the stakeholders to enable a structural approach to the issues of community consultation