Call for parking problems on Naas road to be addressed

The pedestrian and parking problems of the lower Sallins Road in Naas outside the church and the national school have been recognised by the council and are being planned for “a most effective” remodelling.

However, a Kildare County Council representative said at a recent meeting of Naas Municipal District that “there are no known significant funding opportunities available for such improvements”.

Cllr Bill Clear contradicted this. 

“We have €50,000 (LPT funding) already put aside for this, and that would go a long way."

Cllr Clear had asked that “the council redesigns the area in front of the Church of Our Lady and St David, Mercy Convent Primary School, and McAuley Place, with consideration given to the installation of a pedestrian crossing to Chapel Lane”.

At first, it sounded like his entreaty had landed on fertile ground.

“Kildare County Council has outlined plans to transform the outside of the school and church environment on Sallins Road,” confirmed Donal Hodgins, the senior engineer at traffic.

“The main objective of such plans is to significantly improve facilities for vulnerable road users and primarily to address issues of accessibility, and ease of movement for pedestrians,” he pointed out, not unreasonably, before settling on the uncomfortable crux.

“However, there are significant constraints including the camber of the carriageway, existing drainage, public lighting provision, the standard of footpath surfaces, safety concerns regarding the existing perpendicular car parking, and the lack of accessibility at the bus stop,” he listed.

“All these issues need to be resolved as part of a solution for this area, and a plan would need to be sensitively designed requiring a cross-departmental multi-disciplinary team,” he explained.

“Any plans would require significant consultation with all relevant stakeholders, (but) a design to rebalance provisions for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users would be most effective, with a complete reimagining of the streetscape from the junction at Poplar Square to the junction of Wolfe Tone Street with an emphasis on reducing the attractiveness for motorised traffic to drive outside this sensitive area,” he outlined.

“However, this is not an insignificant project and would require central government funding and there are no known significant funding opportunities available for such improvements,” concluded Mr Hodgins.

“OK, they say there is a lot of design in this, but that €50k is enough to get the ball rolling on this,” said cllr clear.

“I’ve even commenced formal talks with the church and the school, then we can improve the safety in this are for all vulnerable road users,” he said.

“This location is next for a 30kph zone … last year alone there were seven people knocked down in Naas, fortunately none fatally.

“We will ensure this plan will tie in with the (public realm team’s) plan for the centre of Naas."