Kildare estate protest over planned access

IT’S now nearly three years since a notice appeared in Tonlegee Lawns in Athy about the planned construction of a new Blackparks Large Residential Development (LRD) of 132 residential units adjacent to the estate, which the established residents have been protesting.

“We don’t have the wind on our arse, we have a pain in the arse from Kildare County Council,” said Pawel Rozmus, chair of the Tonlegee Residents Association (Tonlegee is the anglicised translation for ‘backside to the wind’).

“The planning department at Kildare County Council was determined to make us happy as residents and connect our 28-year-old, established, and community-building estate with two pedestrian and cycle access points and other inter-apartment paths,” said Pawel.

“The community of our estate - 54 homes - opposed this from the first day we learned of the planned development.

“We asked our politicians for help and submitted applications objecting to the crossings through our estate.

“The petition was confirmed by all residents and sent to the County Council.

“Ultimately, the council decided to implement the proposed road connecting the estates, but two pedestrian crossings were still ruled out.

“As residents of Tonlegee Lawns, we disagreed with this idea.

“As homeowners, we decided to purchase a house in the Tonlegee Lawns estate due to the small size of the estate and the close-knit community we create as residents.

“Our priority as residents is our safety and the safety of our children, who currently play exclusively in our estate and have only one exit option.

“Every parent, when a child disappears from view, knows where to go to find them. Once the additional access is built, this will no longer be possible.

“An additional problem, which has already plagued us as residents, has been the anti-social behaviour of teenagers from other neighbouring areas in recent years, which has resulted in repeated Garda interventions.

“The creation of new housing estates by our estate will bring back this disaster.

“Our homes will lose their value just as the county council's plan comes to fruition.

“What was most incomprehensible and irritating to us as residents was that no one from the County Council even thought to ask us, as residents of a stable and well-maintained estate, what we thought.

“Someone behind the architectural office at county council was trying to force us to "make ourselves happy" by combining a large new development of 132 houses and apartments with our modest development of 54 houses.

“The lack of acceptance and total disregard for us as residents by the county council is outrageous and unacceptable.

“After the county council rejected the possibility of removing the crossings between the estates, it submitted a resolution to the higher authority, an Board Pleanála (now An Coimisiun Pleanála).

“However, they stated that they would not remove these access points.

“We contacted the company building the estate, and after numerous discussions, the company's top management concluded that they did not need the crossings as residents of the newly built estate would have five different options for exiting their estate.

“This was confirmed by the management of the company building the new estate sending letters to the county council requesting the access points into Tonlegee Lawns be removed. “However, someone behind the desk at Kildare County Council decided that the access points should remain, and officials didn't even bother to come in person to see what this would look like.

“As residents, we feel discriminated against and victimized by the county council.

“Every Tonlegee resident is happy with the state of the estate. None of us requested additional crossings. The only requirement is that no one interfere with our neighbourhood.

“We as residents – and developers Cairn Homes - appealed against these pedestrian links to An Coimisiun Pleanála, because the only people who want the pedestrian links is Kildare County Council, not the residents and not Cairn Homes.

“The residents are determined to ensure, by all lawful, peaceful means that the pedestrian links are not opened and that Tonlegee Lawns remains the small, quiet, peaceful community that it has always been.

“Kildare County Council will not be allowed to impose their desire for connectivity above the collective will of the residents,” he concluded.