Mr.Cuffe is a planning lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology and a Green Party City Councillor. Wearing both of these hats, he casts a fanciful eye over what the Greater Dublin Area might look like in the year 2020....

Forecasters in the Department of the Environment and Local Government predict that by 2020 Dublin could become a city of two and a half million people with serious traffic and social problems. Many new homes are being built in low density suburbs without adequate shopping and social facilities. They use up valuable land and make it difficult to provide schools and health services to a sprawling population.

At the National Housing Conference held last week it was announced that a National Spatial Strategy will be published by the end of the year. This will concentrate new development in ‘Gateway’ centres, and promote higher density housing developments. This may mean more apartments and terraced houses in our cities and towns, and an end to ribbon development and bungalow blitz in our countryside. An investment in roads and public transport is also promised.

(BULLET POINT GUIDE TO DUBLIN 2020)

• Dundalk is now a dormitory town of 100 000 inhabitants. Tens of thousands of car commuters leave home at four in the morning to beat the tailbacks on the M1 Motorway on their way to work in bio-technology plants on the M500; Dublin’s new outer ring road which runs along the border of Dublin and Kildare Meath and Wicklow

• The new rail link from Dublin to the City of Navan (population 150 000) finally opens after decades of indecision. Former Minister Noel Dempsey describes the event as long overdue. The rail line serves the major towns of Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin. Protest groups from the sprawling suburbs of Kells, Virginia and Cavan picket the opening ceremonies and call for the line’s immediate extension through County Cavan. The hill of Tara is under threat of development from the sprawl of Navan’s housing estates.

• Mullingar is flourishing. Spacious city centre apartments and jobs in the downtown business district attract those unhappy with the suburban sprawl of the upper Shannon Region. “Why deal with the traffic in Drumshanbo, when in you can live close to work and leisure” says the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

• Athlone, the premier Gateway City is thriving. New high-tech offices are located within walking and cycling distance of new terraced housing. The University is expanding rapidly to cater for high enrolments from abroad. Loft apartments in the former Army Barracks sold of the plans. However shoppers driving to the Shannon Valley Mall complain of long traffic delays on Saturdays as car parks are full from early morning.

• Edenderry Co. Offaly has a population of 50,000 people. The County Engineer expresses concern that the town’s sewage plant, designed for a population of 10,000 people is now in danger of complete collapse from over-use. Average new home prices are over a million pounds.

• The M50 ring road is now officially Ireland’s largest parking lot. Plans by Dublin’s Director of Traffic to restrict the road to buses and taxis only are met with opposition by the AA who feel that this should only be allowed during the morning rush hours from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Schools built in Blessington New Town built only fifteen years previously face closure due to falling secondary student numbers. Local groups call for their conversion to language centres to cater for West Wicklow’s growing immigrant population.

• The long awaited Leinster Authority for Planning and Development (LAPD) holds its first meeting in Portlaoise, now a city of 100 000 inhabitants. The Director says that desperate times call for desperate measures as she introduces a toll of £10 for all cars crossing the M50.

• Wicklow town is now the new Dalkey. Apartments with a view of the Marina fetch premium prices of up to £10 million. The new high speed rail link takes less than hour to travel to Spencer Dock Station in Dublin’s City Centre.

• Holyhead in Wales is a boomtown thanks to the HSS superferry which connects North Wales with the heart of Dublin’s Docklands. Commuters say they can avoid overcrowded roads in Ireland and arrive refreshed after the forty minute journey.

• One hundred different nationalities are now present in the Patrick’s Day Fáilte Festival held on the 17th of May. The parade travels through Dublin’s Chinatown and Little Africa before arriving at the reviewing stand at the Millenium Monument in a pedestrianised O’Connell Street. Food stands offer a cornucopia of tastes including the full Irish breakfast, a common meal from the last century, when people had more time on their hands.

• Leinster’s new Mayor renews her call for ‘smart growth instead of urban sprawl.’ In an online message from her office in the historic centre of Portarlington to the teleworkers in her sprawling constituency she thanks them for their role in reducing traffic. She also calls for the new satellite cities of Portlaoise, Tullamore and Carlow to work together to attract new knowledge based industries to their areas. She praises planners and architects for their role in promoting imaginative urban design proposals that have attracted families to live in city centres, but states that more playgrounds and parks are necessary to make these cities truly sustainable.

ENDS