New Dublin Billboards concern NCBI

Release Date: Jul 15th, 2008

NCBI has serious concerns over the erection of new advertising billboards in Dublin City centre as they pose a threat to the safety of people who are blind or vision impaired.

Des Kenny, NCBI's Chief Executive, said "We are extremely concerned about the situation. We have been in contact with DCC for 18 months in relation to this project and advised them that these billboards would pose a problem for people with sight loss unless they were designed and located with accessibility in mind.

"Following very construtive discussions with DCC we reached an agreement to work closely together to ensure that safety and accessibility were central features of the project. Unfortunatley, DCC failed to deliver on that agreement.

Mr Kenny continued, "We will be seeking a meeting with DCC to work through the issues with them, particularly in relation to the finish of the steelwork which has sharp edges, and the choice of locations, which do not take account of proximity to pedestrian crossings, path width and the possible obscuring of the pedestrian by these signs.

"These issues are not only important for the safety of blind and vision impaired people, but to all pedestrians. I hope that the City will look to retrofit the existing billboards to deal with the extremely sharp edges that pose such a problem and that they will hold back on erecting any more until we can ensure they will be safe in terms of design and location.

"The focus must be on addressing these issues as quickly as possible."