Lord Mayor calls for car-free zone at popular beach to mark summit

DUBLIN Lord Mayor Dermot Lacey yesterday declared the northside beauty spot of Dollymount Strand a car-free zone to mark the 10th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio.

Travelling by special bus from outside the city’s Natural History Museum, Cllr Lacey set in train a day-long programme of environmentally friendly events in the vicinity of the beach and the Bull Island Interpretative Centre.

The joint initiative by Dublin City Council and Coastwatch Ireland was aimed at promoting and protecting the environment of Bull Island and Dollymount Beach.

Usually the popular recreational area attracts upto 1,000 parked cars daily. However, yesterday’s visitors got into the spirit of things and left their cars in a designated area, before either walking to the beach or taking the special shuttle bus service laid on by Dublin Bus.

“What we’re trying to do is to reopen the possibilities of people enjoying a tremendous public amenity without being in danger of cars knocking them over,” the Lord Mayor said.

“If it works today we will develop it for the future - perhaps have it one day a week, or on certain weekends,” he added. “My own preference would be to have a situation where no cars would go on the beach.”

Councillor Lacey said the next part in the process would be to encourage Dublin Bus to provide a bus service that could cope with the expected take-up and so ensure that people would be able to avail of public transport.