'It's a disaster zone'
A Dublin city centre street has been closed off to the public due to antisocial behaviour including persistent drug use and illegal dumping.
Dublin City Council has said that they are unable to control the back street and so have resorted to the extreme measure of simply closing it off.
Harbour Court, located just over the road from the Abbey Theatre, is used as a pedestrian link from the Quays to Abbey Street.
But on Monday night, councillors agreed to close the lane in a move which was requested by local businesses over ten years ago.
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According to the
Irish Times, Independent councillor Christy Burke said the lane had been used to plan the Dublin riots late last year.
He said: “It’s not safe for men, women or children. This is where the gangs and the groups formed in the Dublin riots in O’Connell Street in November.
"This is where they planned and congregated.”
Sinn Fein councillor Janice Boylan echoed Burke's statement, adding that the closure was necessary "because we don’t have the ability to police the area properly".
Boylan continued: “This laneway is an absolute disaster zone. I used to walk through it when I was younger. I wouldn’t walk through that lane, even in the day now. I would walk the long way around because I just would not feel safe walking through that lane.”
While Independent councillor Cieran Perry was reluctant to close the lane, he accepted that there was no way of policing the back street, saying: “We can’t police or enforce our anti-drug dealing laws in the main streets of Dublin so we certainly can’t enforce it in laneways.
"So until we are in a position that we can, I feel I have no choice but to support the closure of such lanes.”
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