Question: Councillor D. Smith
“To ask the Chief Executive can the gate at the end of Rivervalley View into the
Ward Rivervalley Park be locked at night and opened in the morning similar to
the arrangement for the gate at Highfields?”

Reply:
It is the experience of the Operations Department that locking parks does not
prevent issues of vandalism or anti-social behaviour, but simply prevents the
Gardai or emergency services from quickly accessing or patrolling the park after
dark. The Ward River Valley Park is quite porous along its boundaries, and this
defeats the purpose of locking gates at night-time. The gate at Highfields is
located on a pedestrian walkway, not to a park, and there are no proposals to
lock the gate at Rivervalley View at this time.