DCC sells out to advertisers

I am writing to you to in relation to Dublin City Council's decision to erect 120 permanent advertising billboards around the city, operated by JC Decaux, one of the world's largest outdoor advertising companies. This decision to effectively hand over public space to a private company to profit from advertising for an indefinite time frame in return for 500 bicycles is not value for money. These huge display ads, 2.4m high, and almost two metres wide, will add to our already impossibly cluttered streets. I have already lodged objections on the basis that there has been no public consultation relating to these advertising displays which will have a huge impact on our streetscapes. Selling our valuable street space to a multinational advertising corporation for a few hundred bicycles is not a good deal for Dubliners!

People should lodge their own objections to DCC, and to city councillors to vote down these proposals. The City Manager has many questions to answer in relation to this deal. What consultation has taken place with the public to see if they wanted these structures and who controls the advertising content?

It is ironic that DCC is planning to sell off space for corporate advertising given that last year they tried to ban the erection of public notices denying free speech to non-profit organisations and individuals.

This is a Public-Private Partnership arrangement. I am currently undertaking a PhD in PPP research and the evidence to date from PPPs carried out by DCC in relation to social housing, waste outsourcing and the Ringsend waste water treatment plant is that PPPs are more costly for the tax payer, and the private partner is only interested in profit to the detriment of the public service provided. If the council want to promote bicycle use they should build more cycle lanes. They could start by putting a bicycle lane on O'Connell St. These plans for advertising display units are another example of profit coming before the interests of the ordinary citizens of this city.

Rory Hearne, Dublin 8