Controversial plans for security gate at Dublin Disney store upheld
Controversial plans for a security gate to stop homeless people sleeping in the doorway of the Disney Store on Dublin's Grafton Street, have been approved.
The company that operates the shop had argued rough sleepers and drug use in the recessed entranceway had exposed staff to threatening behaviour and confrontation.
The retractable steel structure is to stop apparent drug use in the doorway and rough sleepers from bedding down after the shop closes.
According to the Irish Independent, Dublin City Council has granted planning permission after revised plans for the folding steel gate were lodged.
Independent city councillor Mannix Flynn has welcomed the decision.
He said: "They are known in some terms as hostile architecture but I would disagree there."
"You have to protect staff, you also have to protect rough sleepers," he said.
"Because if An Garda Síochána are driving down the street they can't really see anybody who is in a doorway," he said.
In an objection against the plan, volunteer in the homeless sector and Dublin-based architect, Enda Fanning, argued that “the proposed industrial security gates are a gross overreaction to the current situation”.
