What are the best means of increasing the greening throughout the city, including local, neighbourhood and city scale greening projects?
Increase the space that is allocated to green areas. Fitzgerald’s Park is an excellent amenity on the western edge of the city centre. However, the city centre area does not have enough green areas/parks when compared to other cities e.g. St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. The development of the docklands area provides an opportunity to incorporate more large scale greening in an area that is close to the city centre. Certain parcels of land or blocks in the area should be reserved for parks in addition to what is already planned for in the Marina Park.
Encourage the planting of trees on both a small to medium scale on city streets and river front areas and a larger scale in existing parks. The greening of the city should be progressed in line with pedestrianizing streets. The additional room from removing cars from city streets can be devoted to pedestrian movement as well as a significant increase in trees. As an example, the Morrisson’s Island improvement works could incorporate significantly more trees along the length of river it covers. The benefit of having a tree lined, pedestrian friendly space here would far outweigh the benefit of its use as a car park or through road.
Encourage green landscaping in park and public realm developments rather than hard landscaping. For example, the proposed Bishop Lucey park development would preferably incorporate more green elements (trees, landscaped garden, wild flora etc.). Green landscaping is not only visually more attractive but is also a more environmentally sound approach.