Kildare ‘supercreche’ gets go-ahead
Photo for illustrative purposes only
AFTER 10 years and four failed applications, Jigginstown in Naas is set to get a long-awaited large childcare facility, complete with dedicated onsite staff accommodation.
The ambitiously named ‘Little Harvard Creche’ (with a limited office address in Green Lane, Leixlip) finally got permission recently for a two-storey, 10-classroom place of infant fun and education on the Castlefarm Bailey, adjacent to Primrose Lane, and just off the south ring road.
This will also include a kitchen, a lift, a foyer, an office and toilets, as well as four staff apartments capable of accommodating a total of seven staff exclusively.
The staff requirement is an ironclad condition of the permission, and “none can be let or sold independently”.
However, this eventual achievement was not an easy ride.
Parent company Ardstone Ltd, who built 180 adjacent homes in piecemeal permissions since 2016 when the creche was first mooted, failed to get a dedicated facility – plus six apartments – built, first in 2020.
Then a second application was withdrawn from the process post-Covid in 2022, then a third in 2023 following a request for 10 requests for ‘further information’, as the industry calls demands for complex and comprehensive replies to queries about an application.
This repeated a fourth time in 2024 for what seemed to be an identical application to this months successful one, but it also was withdrawn from the process after six demands for ‘further information’.
Then, in October 2025 the bullet was bitten once again, and by the looks of the initial planner’s report the following month it looked like déjà vu.
Uisce Eireann, the council’s roads section, parks section, and the chief fire officer (CFO) all had highlighted issues on the 0.18Ha (0.45ac) site.
UE had a problem with site drainage methods, namely an underground reservoir being used instead of an natural Sustainable Drainage System.
There were also concerns with an outdated site plan, the traffic management plan, parking deficits , fire safety guidelines and landscaping, but Furey Consulting Engineers of Rathasker Road were able to satisfy all of the above, albeit with 23 conditions to get the final permission on 2 June.
“The revised design is considered to be a significant improvement on the original (for example) it doesn’t reduce the total gross interior floor area, yet adds 15sqm to Apt 4,” said the planner’s report.
The four main points of technical difficulties raised over the Road Safety Audit “is now to the Road Section’s approval”.
Though they couldn’t replace the attenuation tank with a more amenable SuDS Plan, Furey’s explained how the site was not in a flood plain, had a large degree of permeable surface, and that they would grant assurances for the private upkeep and maintenance for the tank.
Initially, the CFO had a problem with upstairs emergency exits opening directly out onto a fire escape, but was satisfied when shown a design for an exit option through a foyer.
The parks section’s concerns were quickly allayed once assurances for the retention of a landscape architect were given, and finally all was forgiven.
