Bringing a more village feel back to Clontarfs main commercial and community centre, which was The Sheds fishing village long before Dublin City grew around it, is part of a traffic and public realm plan for the area where Vernon Avenue and the Clontarf Road meet. Teething and traffic issues are expected, but most local area councillors today agreed that the benefits will be strong and sided with officials who said the Clontarf Village scheme isnt suitable for a trial. Most who voted against a trial indicated they wanted to proceed with the full project without one; most who voted for the trial also expressed support for the project.What a number of councillors are calling the Clontarf Village project is planned to include traffic calming on Vernon Avenue between Seafield Road and the Clontarf Road, and a filtered permeability measure will also make an area of about 60 metres between Clontarf Park and the Clontarf Road car-free.This car-free area will improve public space around the shops in the urban centre, and also make the area north of it a lower-traffic route, enabling it to form part of the cycle network without having cycle paths. At the same time, all driveways, and premises, including Nolans of Clontarf and the shops around it, will remain accessible by car, just not directly to/from the Clontarf Road.Cllr Kevin Breen (independent) put forward a motion seeking for the councils Clontarf village project to be trialled for a period of no less than four weeks to fully assess the proposed changes and ensure that any potential issues or snags are identified and addressed before the changes are made permanent.At todays North Central Area Committee meeting, Cllr Breen called the project a huge piece of infrastructure. He said he supported the project, but compared it to not buying a car before taking it for a test drive.He said the project is a good news story for the council and its active travel section, but because this type of project would be a first of its kind for Dublin City, they needed to run a trial to weed out any issues.In a written response to the motion, Rhona White, a senior engineer at the councils active travel section, said: A temporary trial would be unable to replicate the final scheme design, including junction signal operation, pedestrian and cycle crossing arrangements, parking and loading changes, and the permanent public realm improvements. As a result, any findings from a trial would be of limited value in predicting the operation and outcomes of the completed scheme.IMAGES: Artists impression images of the project.She added: It is also recognised that traffic impacts are often most pronounced immediately following implementation, as road users adjust their travel patterns and behaviours. A short-term trial would be likely to capture this transition period rather than the longer-term operational conditions that emerge once travel demand has stabilised. Consequently, a trial may not provide a representative assessment of either the schemes long-term traffic performance or its wider placemaking and accessibility benefits.Cllr Donna Cooney (Green Party) said shed normally be in favour of trials, but in this case theres funding for the full project secured from the National Transport Authority, plans have been drawn up, and consultation goes back for years.She said that, in this case, a trial would not reflect the full project.Cllr Karl Stanley (Social Democrats) said: I cannot support this motion. Theres been plenty of work done by experts who were pretty clear on what the implications on the bottom of Vernon Ave were going to be.He said he expects teething and traffic issues at the start, and it will likely require some snag work, but the councillor and officials can figure those issues out.Cllr Stanley added that a trial would kick the can down the road in terms of action and may risk losing funding.Cllr Deirdre Heney (Fianna Fil) said she supports a trial as she had had a lot of emails from people opposed to the project, and she doesnt know whats going to happen if the project is implemented.She said she was confused by the previous two councillors opposition to the trial, given that they support trials on Richmond Road, even after the two councillors had already outlined that situations can be different. She: Im not slagging you off or anything, I just dont understand.Cllr Stanley interjected that he actually wants a permanent traffic scheme on Richmond Road.Cllr Clodagh N Mhuir (Fine Gael) said she supported a trial, but said that it would have to be made clear that a trial might not fully represent the full project. She said that the council should reach out to Fingal County Council to get their experience and data on the Malahide New Street pedestrianisation project, which is more like this scheme than anything in the city centre.Cllr Paddy Monahan (Social Democrats) said that the active travel network was already being implemented too slowly, referring to a prediction that Dublin Citys planned active travel network rollout would take 30 years to roll out. Cllr John Lyons (independent) also said he does not always go along with the officials positions, and he expects teething problems, but said the project has undergone public consultation and is ready for the next stage of full implementation without a trial.During the meeting, Rhona White of the councils active travel section said that the public consultation report for the project, which is officially called the Vernon Avenue to Clontarf Road Active Travel Scheme, should be ready this month.White said that officials are seeing generally strong support for the scheme in the 410 submissions which were received after 3,700 leaflets were distributed to residents and businesses, and a consultation event was attended by 250 people. She added that the feedback from the consultation would be addressed in the report, and that the submissions would also influence the detailed design of the project.Cllr Breen said everyone wants the Clontarf Village scheme to succeed, but he did not see the rush and said the trial was the practical, common-sense thing to do. He said it was not a competition about who supports the project the most and he does not buy the official response, which said the trial was not workable. He called for a roll-call vote on his motion, the result of which is below.Six voted to delay the full project for trial to take place first, but seven voted against the trial. For: Cllr Daryl Barron (Fianna Fil), Cllr Kevin Breen (independent), Cllr Declan Flanagan (Fine Gael), Cllr Clodagh N Mhuir (Fine Gael), Cllr Deirdre Heney (Fianna Fil), Cllr Supriya Singh (Fine Gael).Against: Cllr Donna Cooney (Green Party), Cllr Jesslyn Henry (Social Democrats), Cllr John Lyons (independent), Cllr Paddy Monahan (Social Democrats), Cllr Michel MacDonncha (Sinn Fin), Cllr Aishling Silke (independent), Cllr Karl Stanley (Social Democrats).Cllr Edel Moran (Sinn Fin) abstained, while Cllr Racheal Bourke (Fianna Fil), Cllr Alison Field (Labour), and Cllr Aoibheann Mahon (Fianna Fil) were absent or were online and did not respond.