Kildare councillor's attempt to block motorway tolls blocked by FF/FG
KILCOCK, 13 October 2000: 10.30am by Brian Byrne. At last night's meeting of the Mid-East Regional Authority FF & PD councillors from Meath and Wicklow spoke against, and voted down a motion from Cllr John McGinley rejecting Tolls on the proposed Kilcock/Kinnegad motorway. Senator John Dardis from Kildare spoke in favour of the tolls. The Mid-East Regional Authority has councillor members from Kildare, Meath and Wicklow and last night they were debating proposals from the National Roads Authority and the Government to impose Tolls on the Kilcock/Kinnegad Motorway as well as other such roads. During the discussion, Cllr McGinley proposed that they write to the NRA and the minister for the environment rejecting such tolls, but the majority groups voted against taking the proposal. Cllr Jim Reilly (FG) from Carbury spoke in favour of Cllr McGinley's motion, and supported it in the vote, as did independent Cllr Tony McEvoy. There were no Kildare Fianna Fail councillors present. |
Monread to be first playground siteNAAS, 13 October 2000: 8.30am by Trish Whelan. Monread District Park is the site for Naas UDCs first modern kiddies playground. The exact site has yet to be agreed between Council officials, local residents and the Parks Committee. The pilot playground is expected to be up and running within a year. |
Criticises delay in park land transferLEIXLIP, 13 October 2000: by Brian Byrne. The transfer of ownership of St Catherines Park in Leixlip to the three local authorities who are developing it is being delayed by legal matters with Kildare and Fingal county councils. The difficulties in the transfer procedure of the park and the remainder of Lucan Demesne have been evident for over a year and the delay has been criticised by Deputy Emmet Stagg (below left). |
Giving work brings merchant travellers back - garda chiefCOUNTY HALL, 13 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. The fact that the general public give work to transient merchant travellers who call to their doors is helping to keep them in an area, according to Garda Chief Superintendent Sean Feely. He was speaking during Mondays special meeting between top gardai in the county and members of Kildare County Council.
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****Earlier News from this week available here****Around and About the County...MONASTEREVIN: A Commemorative Stone will be unveiled tomorrow, Saturday October 14th, at 2pm, by Jack Wall TD at Ballykelly G.F.C Centre in memory of the late Stephen O'Rourke, a founder member of the club. In the unavoidable absence of Fr John Foster, Club President, local Ballykelly Priest Fr James Kelly will impart the blessing. As a fitting tribute, local teams Monasterevan & Ballykelly will engage in a friendly match on the adjoining pitch and afterwards all involved get together for refreshments at the Hazel Hotel. (Monasterevin Online) MAYNOOTH: Maynooth Post Primary School is to be enlarged to cater for 850 pupils, from its present nominal capacity of 650. This follows a review of the schools situation by the Planning Unit of the Department of Education. The school currently suffers from serious overcrowding, with a present roll of 733 pupils. CELBRIDGE: Plans for the drainage scheme aimed at alleviating the flood problems at Hazelhatch in Celbridge will go on display at the end of October. This will allow the organisations most affected - Celbridge GAA and Celbridge Lawn Tennis Club - to see the scale of the improvement planned. NAAS: St Marys College Past Pupils Union are holding an alternative therapy evening with speakers on acupuncture; homeopathy; relaxation and aromatherapy on Thursday, October 26 in St Marys College. Admission is £5. MAYNOOTH: Proposed improvement works on Kildare Bridge in Maynooth are to be put on public display. The £1.178m project includes widening the bridge and the construction of a roundabout at the junction with the Blacklion Road. ATHY: Two full-time special needs assistants have been sanctioned for Scoil Mhichil Naofa in Athy. The Special Needs Section of the Department for Education and Science will make the arrangements with the school authorities to finalise details of advertising the positions, minister Michael Woods told Deputy Sean Power. NAAS: Poor maintenance of the Poor House Cemetery has been condemned by Cllr Charlie Byrne (left) who said the headstone was overgrown with weeds. Its full of nettles, dirt and filth but would not take much effort to keep clean. MAYNOOTH: Litter bins are to be installed at all bus stops on the Straffan Road and Leixlip Road in Maynooth, following the passing of a motion by Cllr John McGinley at a recent Leixlip Area meeting. New bins are also to be installed between the railway and Manor Court and at the Harbour, and the county manager is to be asked that necessary manpower be made available to to the area engineer to have them emptied on a regular basis. ATHY: Roma McGrath has written from the UK looking for members of her family who may still live in Athy. Roma was born in England. Her Grandfather was Joseph McGrath and he had brothers Willie, Mick, James and a sister May. Willie was a butcher in Athy and was married to Bridget. "I wonder if any of this makes sense to anyone over there?," she asks KNN readers. "If so, please get in touch as I am tracing my family tree. I'm coming over next year so any trace would be useful." NAAS: Life Saving classes will start in Naas Swimming Pool on Saturday October 14, from 7-8pm and on Monday 16th from 9-10pm. The Course runs for 8 weeks and costs £25. Certificates are issued from the Irish Water Safety Association to successful candidates. For information or to book contact tel 879747. MAYNOOTH: Proposed improvement works on Kildare Bridge in Maynooth are to be put on public display. The £1.178m project includes widening the bridge and the construction of a roundabout at the junction with the Blacklion Road. LEIXLIP: The Leixlip Town Commission Committee is to seek an update from Christy Stapleton in relation to the current position on the upgrade of the rail line. The DTO will also be written to seeking the inclusion in their next seven-year plan of a third Leixlip Station at Collinstown together with Park and ride at this location.
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Too much time wasted over Devoy purchase for needed housingNAAS, 12 October 2000: 12.30pm by Brian Byrne and Trish Whelan. The acceptance of a bid of £7 million for 14 acres of Devoy Barracks has been welcomed by Cllr Pat McCarthy of Naas UDC, whose efforts to have the council buy the land will see a lot of people taken off the housing list. He also expressed his concern that no official announcement had been made about the deal, and there was a distinct lack of information to the councillors. I only heard about it from the media, and if it wasnt for KNN Id have no information on it at all, he said. |
UDC likely to borrow for £7m Devoy purchaseNAAS, 12 October 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. Naas UDC is likely to have to borrow the £7m which it has agreed to pay the Department of Defence for 14 acres on the former Devoy Barracks. The acceptance of the bid was revealed last evening by Cllr Willie Callaghan (see last evening's story below), and an official announcement of the deal is expected within a few days. The deal follows a series of negotiatary procedures over recent weeks between the local authority, the minister for the environment, Noel Dempsey TD, the minister for defence, Michael Smith TD, and the minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy TD (left). The 14 acres was rezoned as 'New Residential' by the UDC last year in return for part of the total former barracks property which is to be used for new headquarters for both Naas UDC and Kildare County Council. The news of the success of the bid appears to have quashed hopes that the Department of Defence would simply transfer the property to the UDC for use for social housing, which had been demanded by Kildare North TD Emmet Stagg. Earlier yesterday, Deputy Stagg said the relevant ministers had been 'playing cat and mouse' with a state asset which could be used to tackle the housing crisis in Naas, where there are currently over 400 people on the housing waiting list. Last week, junior environment minister Bobby Molloy said the acquisition of land to meet local authority housing needs 'is a matter for individual local authorities themselves', the funding for which can be met from their own internal resources or from borowings through the Housing Finance Agency. As Naas UDC has nothing like that kind of money in its 'internal resources', it will have to borrow to complete the purchase, though the money will be refunded piecemeal by the Department of the Environment as any building programme is progressed. The minister for defence had always expected £7 million for the property, but a tendering procedure earlier this year failed to attract anything near this sum and there was only a single tender, from a Naas charitable group who wanted to use it for homes for the elderly. The UDC did not tender in the previous process despite being instructed to do so by members, because officials thought it would cost the authority more than it could afford. But subsequent to the failure of the tender, council members once again instructed them to put in a bid for the property, which was then for sale by private treaty. It isnt known if there was any other interest. |
Gardai want changed trespass laws to deal with invading travellersCOUNTY HALL, 12 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. Top Gardai have asked Kildare County Councillors to make representations to central government to have laws improved to deal with the problem of merchant traveller incursions around the county. It has also emerged that Chief Superintendent Sean Feely has written to the Law Reform Commission asking for a change in the law to allow for arrest for trespass as the problem in Kildare is almost out of hand. It was made clear that present laws are inadequate to deal with the issue. He said communities in Celbridge, The Curragh, Naas and Blessington had all suffered with up to 200 travellers and 100 caravans moving in overnight or in the evenings. "They cause unbelievable problems. Some people pay them to move on." He said these travellers cause much criminal damage but do it at a time when there is no one to witness it. "You cannot prosecute 50 people for criminal damage. You must see that person doing it or have a witness to it." He said a tough system was needed here. |
Planning alliance candidates elected to county committeesKILDARE GENERAL, 12 October 2000: by Bill Trapman. Considerable success has been achieved by members of the Kildare Planning Alliance in a series of elections which has taken place in the last month to the County Development Board, the Strategic Policy Committees and to the Kildare Local and Voluntary Forum. |
Leixlip garda station plans in doubtLEIXLIP, 12 October 2000: by Brian Byrne. The provision of a full Garda Station for Leixlip is up in the clouds following An Bord Pleanalas decision to reject planning permission for the Youth Centre at Newtown House (left). Thats the view of local representative Deputy Emmet Stagg, who says theres now only one site left where the station can be put ... and that has difficulties too. |
Naas UDC buys Devoy Barracks for £7mNAAS, 11 October 2000: 6.00pm by Brian Byrne. The 14 acres of Devoy Barracks which has been up for sale for the Department of Defence is to be used for social housing by Naas UDC. This follows the acceptance by the department of a £7m bid from the UDC. It's not yet known if there were any other bidders for the property. |
Ploopluck petition presented to UDCNAAS, 11 October 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. Residents of estates on the Caragh Road have handed in a 330-signature petition to Naas UDC demanding action now over the long-running saga of Ploopluck Bridge and the footpath between their estates and the bridge. And they say they are seriously worried about a silence to their concerns from the UDC, since they first wrote to it on the issue last July. |
Householder 'had to leave home' over field being used as toiletCOUNTY HALL, 11 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. Travellers who had invaded a field in Celbridge over the summer openly used it as a sewer, often only feet away from the back door of a nearby house. This, claimed Celbridge Area Cllr Senan Griffin (left), resulted in the householder having to leave home. (ED: the situation described in the opening paragraph of this article is nothing new. With some misgivings at breakfast time, but no apology, we reproduce above a picture of underneath Ploopluck Bridge after the Parc na nOg incursion in Naas last autumn.) |
KELT public workshops are successfulKILDARE GENERAL, 11 October 2000: by Brian Byrne. A series of workshops held throughout the county by the Kildare LEADER company KELT have been described as successful by the organisation. The workshops were intended to lay the groundwork for KELT's submission for further funding for the county under the LEADER Plus and national LEADER programmes. Some 160 people attended the events, which were held in Maynooth, Johnstown Bridge, Newbridge, Celbridge, Allenwood and Athy. Pictured below at the Celbridge meeting are Ciaran Duggan, chairman of KELT, with the minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy TD, and (back) Justin Larkin, KELT programme manager, and KELT board members Fearga Kenny, Chris Byrne and Charlie Carrie. |
Gardai should have 'reinforcements' for traveller incursionsCOUNTY HALL, 10 October 2000: 8.30am by Trish Whelan. If the gardai are unable to cope with up to 150 potentially violent or hostile travellers in a field, they should call in reinforcements or the army, Deputy Emmet Stagg (left) told a special meeting of top gardai in the county with Kildare councillors. |
Travellers intrusion during funeral serviceALLENWOOD, 10 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. A situation in Allenwood where travellers invaded the village on Sunday evening while a funeral cortege was arriving at the church has been condemned by local councillor Michael Fitzpatrick (right) who said he abhorred the intrusion. |
Funding for Kilcullen from businessman to be increasedKILCULLEN, 10 October 2000: by Brian Byrne. At least £26,000 a year for the next six years has been guaranteed for community projects in Kilcullen by local businessman Kevin Keenan (right). A special committee to assess and decide on which projects will benefit is being set up. Mr Kennan is the operator of the KTK private landfill operation at Brownstown and Carnalway in Kilcullen, and the money comes from a special 'Peter's Pence' levy on every tonne of material taken in by the landfill. For the last two years this has netted the local Tidy Towns Group £10,000 a year, but now Mr Keenan is putting it on a broader and more structured footing. "I'm very pleased with how the money has been spent so far," he told the attendance at the annual Tidy Town Awards in Kilcullen at the weekend. "I've decided to double the amount gathered for the fund per tonne from here on, and this should guarantee £26,000 a year for the life of the operation, given the terms of our EPA licence." The money allocated to the community so far has been spent towards the costs of major projects of refurbishing the Valley Park and the new Riverside Park behind the Town Hall. Mr Keenan has invited any group or individual to submit proposals for other community projects, and these will be assessed by a committee of people who are external to these organisations. The members of the committee have yet to be appointed. |
Want traffic calming rampsNAAS, 10 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. Gleann na Riogh residents want traffic calming ramps right through their estate to the Dublin Road. |
Naas won't accept parking charges on its ownNAAS, 9 October 2000: 10.30am by Trish Whelan. Members of Naas Chamber of Commerce say they will not accept pay to park charges in Naas without them simultaneously being introduced in Newbridge. |
Leixlip traffic situation discussedLEIXLIP, 9 October 2000: by Brian Byrne. The Traffic and Transport Committee of Leixlip Town Commission has decided not to ask for an increase in the speed limit in the area of Intel, as there is a lot of activity at Intel and the Amenities Centre has a reasonably high pedestrian movement. With Louisa Bridge changes, it was felt we should not seek an increase in the speed limit in this area, says Cllr Catherine Murphy. |
Big cleanup for graveyard to go aheadNAAS, 9 October 2000: by Trish Whelan. The Abbey Graveyard in Naas is to get a major cleanup with work due to start within the next two months. It is anticipated the project will be completed by Easter. |
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