'Soulless communities' fear amid plan to increase housing in Kildare
Aras Cill Dara
A SPECIAL meeting of Kildare County Council (KCC) was held recently to discuss a key variation to the county development plan.
The overarching aim of the variation is to increase the county’s housing growth requirement for the remaining three years of the county development plan, “to align with the NPF (National Planning Framework) Implementation: Housing Growth Requirements Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2025). “ The proposed variation will go on public display before the elected members of KCC have a final vote on it.
The variation was considered at a lengthy meeting, with local councillors discussing and debating a significant number of amendments.
At the meeting, one of the most noteworthy amendments proposed was one by cllr Suzanne Doyle from Kildare Town, who sought for a greater variety of housing to be implemented through the plan. This proposal was seconded by cllr Doyle’s Fianna Fáil colleague Daragh Fitzpatrick. It was also supported by Cllrs Ivan Keatley, Aoife Breslin and Seamie Moore.
Cllr Doyle said that housing policy is creating “constipation in the market” through “mono-development”.
Cllr Keatley said that the local authority must start working with the public to deliver high-quality apartments.
Cllr Breslin warned that there is a danger of creating soulless communities.
The amendment was accepted, with it being widely agreed at the meeting.
One notable issue raised at the meeting was a discussion over Local Area Plans (LAPs). These are statutory documents that outline the land use strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of an area.
At the meeting, a solicitor brought in by KCC to speak said that LAPs are “dying a death”. The advisor detailed that local authorities such as KCC are currently unable create an LAP as the law does not allow for it. They noted that the Supreme Court is in doubt over if local authorities can do LAPs.
Speaking to the the day after the meeting, cllr Breslin noted the frustration of her and her fellow councillors towards the government, noting the lack of funding, with Kildare being the fifth biggest local authority but getting less funding than 19 other local authorities, according to the councillor.
Elaborating on her comments at the meeting, Cllr Breslin went on to warn of the perils of not creating infrastructure with the increased housing.
“My clinic is full every day, people are looking for housing, and rents have gone so dear, and it's so hard to find anything to rent, they are trying to buy, but you're buying at a cost because you won't be creating community. We won't have pitches, we won't have GAA clubs.”
She compared the potential problems of Kildare in the coming years with the satellite towns of Dublin.
“We won't have the infrastructure. And how long do you pay that price for? We saw that in Dublin in the 70s where they built these huge satellite towns with no infrastructure in them, and they suffered a huge social problem.”
Cllr Breslin also spoke on the Local Area Plans and the changes that have taken place.
“All major towns, they previously had a Local Area Plan. So Newbridge, Maynooth and Athy would have their own. So at that stage, what would happen is that the members elected in those Municipal District areas would decide their local area plan … and that would be part, would accompany the county development plan.”
She continued: “That has all changed. The government have changed that. So now there's only one plan for the whole of Kildare. So at this stage, we have to do variations to the area plans for all the areas. That is going to take a period of time.”
