Towards a Liffey Valley Strategy Doc. 1 - Kildare.ie

teenagers or loitering. For others, a café would enhance their visit and,
indeed, some respondents explicitly commented to this effect.
There is also variation in response to the attribute “managed as a single
park”. One person thought it would be better if the park were to be
managed as separate entities, although others may simply have considered
this attribute to be less important than attributes they rated higher. The
related attribute of a “clear identity for a Liffey park” appears higher up the
scale, being rated as “quite important”.
The variation in opinion on surfaced paths is also interesting. Again,
several people commented that they much wanted more paths. Older
people and parents with buggies obviously value hard surfaces, but others
may consider these to be rather unimportant or, otherwise, that too many
paths could conflict with the naturalness of the area or introduce too many
new users to hitherto peaceful areas. In either case, respondents were more
in agreement about the case for a continuous path along the Liffey.
The sample sizes are rather small through which to arrive at reliable
variations by county. In any case there is relatively little variation in the
order of ratings at this level, and particularly with regard to those factors of
security and development. However, Leixlip respondents attached
relatively higher ratings to playing fields and trails. The residents of
Celbridge were most keen that the area should be kept free from
development. In Lucan, a “clear identity for the park” was viewed as being
more desirable than among respondents elsewhere, although the same
other attributes appear amongst the highest ratings. In Dublin City,
“access” and “traffic calming” were regarded as being very important. In
Fingal, “regular mowing of grassed areas ” and “woodland” were regarded
as being relatively important. However, the Fingal sample is rather too
small to allow for firm conclusions. The rural Kildare sample is certainly
too small to report.
Grouped by respondent type (see Table 2.4), the data reveals broad
agreement once again in relation to those attributes rated highest. For
parents with young children, playgrounds are clearly important but, in
common with other groups, are considered less important than security.
For older people, naturalness appears as the highest rated attribute
(although the sample size for this group is small).
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