Public consultation period on Bus Connects must be extended – Seery-Kearney

The public consultation period of six weeks for Bus Connects must be extended in the context of Covid-19, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Dublin South Central Senator Mary Seery-Kearney said a longer public consultation is needed as Bus Connects, while visionary and progressive in terms of public transport initiative, does bring with it considerable change to our Capital’s road infrastructure.

Senator Seery-Kearney said, “The consultation period for Bus Connects which opened on 4^th November and is scheduled to close on the 16^th December. I acknowledge the creative use of virtual meeting rooms and advertising campaigns utilised by Bus Connects, but we can and should do better.

“The public meeting aspect is confined to one 90 minute zoom meeting per corridor, where residents groups are limited to no more than two representatives, questions are limited to one each and public representatives must go last, if heard at all, does not constitute true public consultation.

“Some areas do not have a residents group, some residents groups are not computer literate and have difficulty with the zoom concept.  How are they to consult with residents in advance of the Bus Connects zoom meeting and ensure that everyone has their say?.

“Public representatives cannot support the public consultation process by having non virtual in person information meetings as they would do in a normal context. People are being confined to home and working from home during level 5, they may well miss that the consultation period is active at present.

“In my own area, Templeogue/Perrystown/Kimmage is impacted by three bus corridors.  There is currently quite an array of conduits to the city centre available to Templeogue and Greenhills residents and their through traffic. However this will be reduced to Stannaway Road, Crumlin Road or Rathfarnham Road – three options for an entire area because of the accumulative effects of the bus corridors and the attendant cycling corridors.

“Bus connects only consult in silos of each corridor at a time, the accumulative effect of the three corridors in such a small areas needs to be properly discussed before public consultation is closed.

“I have written to the Minister Ryan asking for his intervention to extend the Public Consultation Period to at least 28^th February. This will allow for greater public consultation and dissemination of information by the NTA and the public representatives.

“I believe that an extension to the consultation period will have the benefit of engendering trust, engaging honestly and transparently with the public, afford opportunity for the best feedback and input, and ultimately will bring more people on board,” Senator Seery-Kearney concluded.