Furious row over Oldtown Gardens

NAAS, 7 March 2002: by Trish Whelan. Rows that have typified the business of Naas Town Council over the last year continued in a particularly nasty vein at the most recent meeting of the Council, this time - as in times before - over Oldtown Gardens (above).

The matter came up as the subject of a motion by Cllrs Pat McCarthy, Mary Glennon and Anthony Egan seeking ‘a full report’ on the terms of the Council’s take-over of the Gardens.

But at the end of it all, the precise details of just what Naas Town was given in return for the rezoning of Oldtown Demesne in 1999 remain a closely-held secret held both from councillors and the public of Naas.

And, two and a half years since the deal was made, Naas town clerk Declan Kirrane told the councillors there were ‘certain issues’ in relation to the deal that he would not ‘raise in public’.

But it seems that councillors can’t even get the information in private, even though they ultimately carry the responsibility for any deals that are made in the Council’s name.

Cllrs McCarthy, Glennon and Egan had asked for a full report on the recent ‘take-over ceremony’ of the gardens, reported in The Kildare Nationalist in November (a ‘ceremony’ which was itself controversial and which resulted in Mayor Willie Callaghan apologising to his colleagues).

Mr Kirrane said that prior to the adoption of the 1999 Naas Town Plan, the purchasers of Oldtown agreed to transfer ‘a certain portion’ of the gardens to the Council. “The formal transfer is now being lodged in the Land Registry. When those documents are returned and our ownership registered, a copy will be given to you,” he told the councillors.

He said Major John de Burgh has a lifetime interest in the lands that have been transferred to the Council and any plans to develop the gardens, and admit the public, will have to be discussed with him first.

Cllr McCarthy said he ‘didn’t know how many times’ he has asked for information on what was happening about Oldtown Gardens. “I’m still no wiser!” he said after hearing the town clerk’s report. “We were told over a year ago we would be given a map showing what we were getting.”

Cllr Pat McCarthy said that at the time of the Development Plan in 1999, promises were made that if the land was rezoned, a deal would be done and a maintenance programme agreed by the developer. “We’re asking for maps, for clarification and the terms of what was agreed prior to the handing over ceremony.”

“Why are you asking specific questions?” Mr Kirrane demanded. “I have seen a map but you will see the actual ordnance map.”

“Something is going on and we’re not privy to it!” Pat McCarthy replied.

Mayor Willie Callaghan - who signed the recent ‘handing-over’ document - told the meeting that HE hadn’t seen the map.

“There was a signing-over ceremony and you were there on behalf of the Council,” retorted Pat McCarthy. “I’m asking for a report! I want to know what was signed over.” He added that there are fears that the full gardens, including the water system, were not included in the deal.

“You’ve been told what the town clerk has said,” Mayor Callaghan snapped.

“But I’m no wiser,” returned Pat McCarthy.

“None of us will be the wiser until we get the map from the Ordanace people,” Mayor Callaghan replied.

Cllr Mary Glennon said she would have liked to have seen the map before the story and accompanying photograph appeared in the newspaper. “I was a bit taken aback by it all,” she said.

“I have a signed document in my hand ...” the chairman said, intimating that this should end the matter.

The situation got worse when Mary Glennon noted that the gardens are beginning to deteriorate. She was interupted by Cllr Timmy Conway.

“Would you shut him up?” she asked the Mayor. “Tell him to stop interupting!”

“Will you stop telling lies,” Timmy Conway snapped.

Cllr Glennon asked that he be suspended. She said he should be made retract that statement.

“I won’t retract it,” he stormed.

Willie Callaghan told Mary Glennon ‘she had the floor and should proceed’.

“I will not sit here and be accused of telling lies,” she said.

“Have you something to say?” the Mayor demanded. “We’re not sitting here all night.”

Mary Glennon said she wanted it on record that the Mayor was doing her a disservice for not making Timmy Conway withdraw his remark.

She said Major de Burgh has been ‘on to her’ many times about what is required to maintain the estate. “He is very aggrieved. He is doing it (the maintenance), thinking that the developers were going to enter into a 10-year agreement to maintain the gardens. He’s worried. I’m worried.”

She could see the problems the Major is encountering in trying to keep nature at bay. “He’s not getting any help from the developers,” she said. “All the brochures of their claims and boasts and promises make very hollow reading.” She said she wanted the whole thing sorted out.

Cllr Anthony Egan said no councillor should be accused of telling lies. “It’s grossly unfair,” he said, and suggested that details from Council meetings over what was agreed were ‘sketchy’. “If we can’t get the details as requested in a gentlemanlike manner, we should look for it under the Freedom of Information Act. We’re entitled to that information.”

Timmy Conway said for Mary Glennon to say the gardens are deteriorating ‘is grossly exaggerated and bordering on the libellous’.

“It’s not the truth. I was down there last week,” he said.

“Then you didn’t have your glasses on,” Mary Glennon swung back.

Cllr Conway said the Major was ‘doing a fantastic job’, but he agreed with the motion saying he didn’t know why it has all taken so long. “It’s causing a lot of friction around this table and should have been dealt with two years ago.” He said it was being used as ‘a political football’.

The town clerk said ‘it was never pretended by anybody that all the gardens were going to be handed over to the Council, not by the present occupier or by the developers’.

On the glossy brochures issue, the town clerk said ‘there were things changed frequently during those discussions in relation to the Development Plan. The maintenance and our right of entry in there is curtailed by the right of the present occupier’.

In his contribution, Cllr Seamie Moore said the terms of the maps had changed over a period of years.

“You were awful sure at the time!” Mary Glennon reminded him.

Anthony Egan joined in: “It would be very hard to believe you didn’t know what you agreed.”

Timmy Conway believed none of this should reflect on the developer. He said the Council has a responsibility because the town water flows through Oldtown. He would not say the actual woods have deteriorated.

At this stage, Cllr Charlie Byrne asked what had become of the promise by the developer to hand over five acres of land for use as a halting site.

“We’re sticking to the motion,” he was told by the Mayor. When he pressed the issue, he was told to put down a motion on the matter.

Seamie Moore said there ‘were never five acres, but 20 acres, half a mile from Caragh Court’.

“Major de Burgh has told me if we don’t have the entire waterway system, it cannot be maintained properly,” Pat McCarthy insisted. “I’m fearful we’re not getting this entire system - the swamp, lakes and the outlet onto the canal.” He said the Major does not have control over this area.

He added that the problem is due mainly to the ‘exaggerated claims’ on what was being given over, made by a number of councillors at the elections to sell the Naas Town Plan to the electorate.

He also asked Willie Callaghan to make Timmy Conway withdraw his remark about Mary Glennon.

“I withdraw it,” Cllr Conway said, quietly.

Willie Callaghan returned to the fray “I would ask you to retract that I didn’t know what I signed,” he said to Pat McCarthy. “I told you what I signed. I signed a document relating to the gardens and the final map was with Tony Osborne, our solicitor.”

“I asked you did you know what you signed?” Pat McCarthy repeated.

At this the town clerk said he would contact the solicitor to see when he could get a copy of the registery map, which also included the details in relation to maintenance of the gardens. He said there are ‘certain issues’ he would not raise at a public meeting.

“Well, they haven’t been discussed in private either!” retorted Mary Glennon.

“They can’t be, when you don’t know the facts,” replied the town clerk.

©2002knn

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