Takeaway coffee plan at Kildare sports club refused permission
Newbridge Town FC home ground on Station Road,
A PLAN to convert a shipping container into a coffee dock and hot food takeaway on the grounds of Newbridge Town Football Club has been refused by Kildare County Council.
This was over concerns about traffic prioritisation at the location, and two contraventions of the County Development Plan.
Adam Purewal had made the original application towards the end of September when he sought permission for “a mobile coffee and snacks container” on a site at the club just inside the entrance gate.
To achieve this he had planned to replace a temporary structure here, then attaching its replacement up to mains water and electricity.
The initial planner's report was released on 20 November, and while the council’s environment section felt an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) wasn’t required due to the proposal “not being of substantial risk of significant effects on the environment”, the transport section had “serious concerns over vehicular and pedestrian movements”.
They first cited a lack of space and turning circle at the location, and that putting such a facility here “would be a potential conflict between vehicles and pedestrians, especially on match days”.
“The proposed development also appears to be an impediment to emergency vehicle access,” they added.
Now, while the amendments the applicant made to these issues in the months following the first report seemed to placate the planners on some of these issues, it was the contraventions of the County Development Plan (CDP) that broke the camel’s back.
The noted that the commercial vacancy rate in Newbridge Town Centre is now 14.8 per cent (almost one in seven, and nearly triple the rate in Maynooth at 5.2 per cent).
Because the CDP’s (and the Newbridge Local Area Plan) objectives are “to promote Newbridge Town Centre as a priority location for commercial development, it is considered the proposed development is vehicle-dominant, and conceived solely for passing traffic rather than enhancing its setting”.
