NAAS 04 April 2003: Naas Town Council have denied that they overstepped themselves in taking in an extra 20 sq m of the historic Fair Green as a car park.
Naas town clerk Declan Kirrane was responding to questions from Cllr Charlie Byrne at Wednesday’s adjourned meeting of Naas Town Council. Cllr Byrne had asked if planning permission was needed for the work presently being undertaken on the Fair Green to provide public car parking. He told officials ‘at the last Council meeting you informed Mary Glennon that there were some cars going in there but you did not inform the councillors in full’.
A visibly angry Mr Kirrane replied: “Any response given at a Council meeting is for the consumption of all. I’ve never heard a more ridiculous comment in all my life!”
He added: “We haven’t overstepped ourselves in relation to the Fair Green, and contrary to a media report I am not in favour of turning it into a public car park.”
Cllr Mary Glennon then lashed officials declaring: “We’re expecting other people in this town to respect items of our heritage and we should be leading the posse in this regard.” She believed Duchas would ‘object strenuously as this is a national monument and should not be so desecrated’.
Town engineer John McGowan told councillors: “At the last meeting we informed members we were formalising the existing car park, making space for 30 public parking spaces. 20 cars used to park erratically on the site.” He added the boulders at the bottom of the courtyard beside the old Fire Station were ‘unsightly’ and have now been moved 2m and 3m further out. “In another part of the site, we have brought in the kerb.”
He said a total of 22sq m extra (200 sq ft app) has been taken from the Fair Green amenity area.
As regards planning permission, Mr McGowan replied: “Once the cost is over E160,000 you need a Part 8 public procedure of the Planning Act. We don’t need to go through that procedure as the work, including resurfacing, will not be more than E40,000.”
He said no excavations, other than putting in kerbs, had taken place, and that the path damaged is not the ‘official path that crossed the green’. He said it was previously in a bad state, and agreed ‘part is now in a worse state’. Mr McGowan said the Council intends re-tarmacing that path ‘and the other path’, and to extend it out towards the road to the Swimming Pool.
He added a separate entrance with a barrier to prevent others parking there is to be erected at the Fair Green. He believed when finished the new car park will ease the congestion problem on the road to Swan’s Supermarket and said parking restrictions will be looked at, including a a 2-hour limit.
Returning to his question about excavation work, Cllr Byrne said the Council had gone so deep as to take up the ESB wires. If these wires had not been put in deep enough, then surely the ESB should be reprimanded, he said. “If an answer in response to a question by a councillor is to be regarded as a proper answer for all councillors ...”
At this stage, Mayor Timmy Conway refused to allow further discussion on the subject.
