Repaired St Anne’s Park toilets to be handed back to council next week after fire damage
The eco toilets in St Anne’s Park will be handed back to Dublin City Council (DCC) early next week, following extensive repair work carried out at short notice by a contractor.
It comes after the newly-installed eco toilets were badly damaged by a fire in October, just a week after they were installed in the amenity, rendering them broken.
A spokesperson from DCC said the handover from the contractor will take place next week, and they are hopeful that it will be on Monday December 15.
Once the handover takes place, a safety file and demonstration of the facilities to parks staff must also take place, so “the toilets will be opened as soon as practicable after this date,” they said.
At DCC’s meeting of the North Central Area Committee on Monday, councillors were told by Fergus O’Carroll, DCC Senior Executive Parks Superintendent, that repairs to the facility were now “finished”.
"We’re just waiting now for handover from the contractor and we need instruction then about how to take care of it,” he said, adding that once a date that suits the council and the contractor was found, the meeting would take place.
He thanked the two contractors involved in the repairs, saying that they “dropped everything” to accommodate the council because they understood the “importance” of the facility.
Independent councillor Kevin Breen said he wanted to thank the parks department for the speedy response, adding that it had been “miraculous” how quickly the toilets had been repaired.
Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre Heney said the toilets had taken a long time to be installed, so she was “really pleased" to have them reopening soon.
Several councillors also raised the issue of changing facilities in the park, which are much needed for the various sports clubs which use the pitches in the amenity.
Mr O’Carroll said the Part 8 process which would likely need to be initiated to build the changing facilities had been delayed by the delivery and procurement of the toilets.
Alison Field, the Labour councillor, welcomed the reopening, but said a park as large as St Anne’s should have more than one toilet facility.
"I don’t want them on every pitch, but each and every corner of the park would be fantastic,” she said, adding that she too would like to see the changing rooms built.