Croke Park Residents Meeting

Croke Park Residents August Meetings

Tuesday, August 13th, 2024

Attendance
The Meeting was chaired by Noeline Blackwell
An Garda Síochána:                                   Superintendent Cormac Brennan
MCD:                                                            Eamon Fox – Event Controller
Croke Park Senior Management:           Peter McKenna, Brian Conlon & Tony McGuinness
Community Liaison Officer:                    Billy O’Keeffe
 
43 residents from the Croke Park locality

Previous Meeting Summary
The following actions from the April meeting are updated below:

·Concert Promoters to discuss potential parking arrangements on Belvedere Grounds –

This series of concerts is managed by a different promoter and will be investigated further.

·An Garda Superintendent to ensure enforcement against illegal parking and facilitate disabled access for taxis –

Followed up by AGS and access issue resolved. Enforcement is an ongoing issue.

• Ensure community free phone number is prominently displayed and communicated.

Phone number and Email is included several times on each communication since the issue was raised.

·Concert Promoters to investigate the feasibility of using personal codes/Eircode’s for pre-sale tickets and consider solutions for better access to tickets for people with disabilities.

Issue will be followed up with Ticketmaster and as above, this series of concerts is managed by a different promoter and will be investigated further.

·Croke Park to work with the Concert Promoters to improve the quality and maintenance of porta loos and ensure stadium toilets remain open until crowds leave

MCD have a cleaning crew on board and regular clean ups are carried out. Any issues/concerns can be raised through the 1800 303 593 number and will be followed up.

·Ensure DCC representatives attend future meetings to address waste management issues.

DCC representative is in attendance.
 
MCD Promotions
Eamon Fox, the event controller for both AC/DC and Coldplay concerts, went through a presentation of the concert day timings, the colour coded entry points, the position of additional toilet facilities and the entrance and egress plan for AC/DC.

• Concert sold out with 80,000 people expected.
• Pre-concert setup underway since after Camogie Finals
• Working hours for stage building: 19:00-22:00 on August 11th, 08:00-22:00 on weekdays.
• Trucks will use Saint Joseph’s Avenue for access
• Community base operates on the day of the concert with all connected agencies – AGS, DCC, Community Team, MCD, etc
• Community Free Phone (1800 303 593) available during and after the concert

Issues Raised -  

1. Ticketmaster issue route updates to all ticket holders in the days prior to a concert
2. Timings for works are approved and monitored by Dublin City Council
3. Mailshot to 4,558 registered on DB will be issued via email on Thursday (69.57% opened) Information newsletter currently being delivered / completed by Thursday.

An Garda Síochána – Superintendent Cormac Brennan

• Illegal parking concerns addressed by Superintendent; cars will be towed.
• Residents with carers, or disabled access, etc., contact Croke Park or Fitzgibbon St with details
• Entry points are Ballybough Road/Clonliffe Road and Fitzroy Avenue. Timings given are approximate – need to by ‘dynamic’ to respond to crowds at peak times.

Dublin City Council Waste Management – Trevor Maher

• DCC will have a representative on site before, during and after the concerts to deal with any issues on the day. Post Concert Clean Ups will be carried out after crowds have dispersed and followed up on Sunday/Morning.  Any specific issues can be sent into 1800 303 593.

Issues Raised - 

• Licenced times for works pre-concert and post-concert
• Parking issues on St James’ and St Joseph’s Avenues
• Post-concert clean ups – e.g. litter between cars
• Accessibility Routes for people with mobility issues
• Resident Passes – car registration not displayed, and they get passed around
• Emmet Street – Garda presence requested
• St Margaret’s Avenue – cleaning by DCC queried
• Sewage / Rodent and water pressure issues
• Tolka Road – resident wrongly directed. 
• Bridge at end of Distillery Road – entry to Community Centre
• Request for representative from DSPS / DCC to attend

Review Meeting and Coldplay updates scheduled for 22^nd August 2024 at 7pm in Croke Park

 

2^nd Croke Park Residents Meeting – August 22^nd, 2024

Attendance

Chair:                                                             Noeline Blackwell
An Garda Síochána:                                   Superintendent Cormac Brennan
MCD:                                                             Brian Matheson
Croke Park Management:                        Brian Conlon, Tony McGuinness
Community Liaison Officer:                    Billy O’Keeffe
 
47 residents from the Croke Park locality
 
Apologies:                                                    Peter McKenna, Stadium Director

Meeting Summary / Issues Raised

MCD – Concerts Update

• AC/DC and Coldplay concerts scheduled for August/September are sold out

• Early Queuing will not be permitted and plans in place to prevent this

• Additional directional signage will be in place to ensure no repeat of access issues at the recent concert

• In 2022, there were 70 portaloos positioned at 14 external locations within the cordon.  In 2024, this has been increased to 123 and the number of locations increased to 20.

• Stadium receives concerns about the positioning of the portaloos and welcomes suggestions around where they should be placed.

 
An Garda Síochána

• Three main areas of concern; public urination, access and parking.  All require a change of behaviour by those coming to the stadium

• There is not an endless supply of Gardaí available

• There is approximately a 20-minute time of intense activity pre and post concerts

• You are our eyes and ears.  Tell us and we will do our best to address the issues

 
Dublin City Council – Waste Management

• Increased number of bins provided around Foster Terrace, Charleville Avenue area

• The bottle return scheme has reduced the number of bottles in the area and it is hoped this will continue as it develops

• The issue around litter being left in Window Boxes and Street Planters will be addressed

Issues Raised

• Parking on Jones Road & Russell Street – no alternatives for residents of these streets

• Concerns raised around midweek concerts and concerts scheduled for Sunday – people coming to and from work/school runs and weekend shopping/children’s activities

• St James Avenue – should be closed from 8.30am. Not acceptable to some residents so balance needs to be found and implemented

• Cars parking on Lindsay Road and Iona Road

• Croke Villas – resident asked to move vehicle

• Park and Ride facilities should be provided and/or allow residents to have passes to park elsewhere without payment or compensate people for paid parking

• Notice should be given regarding fireworks.  Query re noise levels.

• No portaloos provided on Croke Park side of Jones Road

• Emmet Street is an area which suffers from people urinating, parking issues and littering

• Innisfallen Parade area needs littering issues investigated

• AGS horses leave a mess behind with no one to clean it up

• Dorset Street / Clonliffe Road / Jones Road are through ways for people travelling into and out of the city and their closure causes issues to those in the surrounding areas. This was acknowledged as ‘challenging’ by AGS but for safety reasons need to be closed when large crowds are on the streets

• Couple with a child’s buggy were refused pedestrian access at 7.15pm.  Are AGS being briefed about allowing people access to their homes?

• General atmosphere at these meetings is contentious and just a box ticking exercise

• Query regarding licence and what is involved in the application for granting of one