No new leisure facilities on horizon for Newbridge
Lakeside Park, Newbridge
An INTERROGATED official stood his ground at a recent council meeting in the face of substantial political pressure for leisure amenities in Newbridge.
He explained that the development of a playground, an all-weather pitch, a basketball court, a BMX park, or a dog park in Lakeside or Dara Park could “not be progressed without a masterplan for the area” in situ first.
Simon Wallace, the acting senior parks and landscape officer for the county took the hotseat at a recent meeting of the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District to face four local councillors, each with an amenity idea for the location.
The first motion he fielded was from the chair – who already had some skin in this particular game – having previously learned from Mr Wallace that €30,000 of LPT money would not be enough to fund such a masterplan.
Cllr Peggy O’Dwyer suggested “that the council install a large playground at the lands around Dara Park, Lakeside Park, and Highfield in the absence of a masterplan to expedite this amenity that is required in a town with a population of over 24,000 people”.
However, in his formal reply, Mr Wallace began where he meant to continue, saying “it is not proposed to install a playground (here) without preparing a masterplan, because without it any development will be uncoordinated”.
He reminded her there already was one in Moorefield Park, and a second coming in the newly extended Linear Park before re-iterating: “A masterplan will maximise the use of the space and where best to locate facilities there."
Cllr O’Dwyer voiced her disappointment, noted “there’s plenty of land up there in council ownership”, and that both Allenwood and Prosperous seemed to have gained their respective playgrounds easily enough.
Cllr Chris Pender had two separate queries – not necessarily at said location – but for a dog park, and a BMX park for the town.
For the former, Mr Wallace said: “There is no scope … to carry out this work."
He reminded cllr Pender that The Curragh “provides suitable, safe access for dog owners, and this may negate the need for any feasibility study”.
"Not all dog owners in Newbridge have access to cars," replied Cllr Pender.
Mr Wallace was then a little more positive with the latter, explaining that there had been some overtures made recently with cllr Tracey O’Dwyer about such a track in Kilcullen. Though “there isn’t a suitable site [there] to provide it”, he was able to give “an estimated cost of €50,000 upwards, depending on the scale of the pump track and design”.
Speaking on the denial to cllr O’Dwyer’s motion, cllr Pender said: “We were told last year, and the year before we needed a masterplan, then it was taken away.
“I understand the holistic nature of it, but we could quite easily take the plan of the Allenwood playground and just put it in here."
Cllr Suzanne Doyle commented: “You should use the money set aside for the masterplan for the tangibles above ground, and not the icebergs beneath."
She added: “There’s too many of those things [plans] lying on shelves."
Cllr Noel Heavy told how “Newbridge is bursting at the seams … and expedience on the masterplan is nonsense”.
Mr Wallace disagreed, and gave an example of how the council had gifted small land packages to sports clubs in the past for development, without a masterplan for that area “because of political representations at the time”.
“But then when we looked to them for a bit of land to build a playground we couldn’t get it,” he said simply.
“It is very difficult to deliver projects across all five MDs.
“We want to revamp Station Road, we would like to build one in Lakeside, and it’s very easy to say let’s just lift the plan from Prosperous or Allenwood and drop it in."
“Could we get a masterplan to be done in 2025?” asked Cllr Peggy O’Dwyer.
“I can’t give a commitment. At the moment the priority is finish out Linear Park, advancing Moorefield, and re-vamping the Station Road,” he said.
