Councillors beaten up on playground

It was a forensic performance with the precision of a Mahon Tribunal when Kilcullen's Community Playground Committee detailed progress, and the lack of it, at last night's public meeting in the Town Hall.



It left no room for the trademark political tactics of waffle and weave, and the only pity of it was that there were just two councillors there, and no officials from Kildare County Council.

It wasn't a packed meeting, but choosing a night when there was some football final attraction on TV didn't help. That said, the 40 or so people who turned out knew their minds.

Unanimously they said they want the playground in the location which the committee has spent three years working to identify and acquire, near the schools and the Community Centre and the other sports and social amenities on its campus.

Cllrs Willie Callaghan and JJ Power eventually got the message. They'd earlier got fleas in their ears when the committee members expressed their displeasure over the councillors' support of an alternative playground at Riverside Manor.



It wasn't a pleasant sight as the pair tried the waffle and weave approach in their defence. JJ Power was twice tripped up on lack of local knowledge. Willie Callaghan's attempts to deflect charges that he and his colleagues had, at best, been discourteous to the playground project, went down in flames against the facts.

When it was all over, and polite thanks for their attendance were delivered to the councillors, they got final food for thought from a loudly applauded comment from the audience, that 'Kilcullen needs its own councillor'.

The meeting had started with an outline of the project's genesis by chairman Noel Clare, as a survey by Transition Year pupils in Cross & Passion College to try and establish any demand for a playground and where one might be located. As a result, a committee was formed to progress the project.

Kirsten Bartells-Shortt reported how money to build the facility was found to be available from Kildare County Council but the community would have to provide a site.

"We looked at various places, at the Tennis Club, the Library, in the CPC grounds itself, but none of them were available to us," she said. "Criteria guidelines from the Council, which included advice that the playground shouldn't be associated with any particular estate, indicated that the best site was the one near the school and the Community Centre."



Tanya Sheridan noted that most of the other community facilities are also in the same area, so it really made sense to locate the playground there.



JJ Warren showed the site on a projected map and detailed the additional advantages if the project as devised by the community went through. These included providing a safe drop-off/pickup area for parents of children in the National School, coach parking, and the elimination of the current dangerous double exit onto Castlemartin Hill from the link road to Gort na Greine and from the Community Centre itself.

His presentation also showed how the proposal could be incorporated into a suggested new intersection with Castlemartin Hill when the link road goes all the way through to the Athy Road, a layout which 'has been approved in principle' by the Roads Department in Kildare County Council.

Orla O'Neill outlined the most recent situation, where local developer Brendan O'Connell had sought and been granted rezoning of part of his Riverside Manor property to facilitate a creche and a playground. Both elements are now required as part of planning permission for the next phase of the Riverside Manor development.

All this was in reference to the recently displayed and passed Kilcullen Local Area Plan. Orla O'Neill said that the Playground Committee had made a submission that the site they were negotiating with Scoil Bhride and the Dublin Diocese should be designated for the facility in the Plan.

"It didn't happen," she said. "Instead, two other proposals were made, one in Riverside Manor and the other at the back of McTernans."

She said the Playground Committee didn't know these were in train until they heard about remarks made by a couple of councillors. "However, when we tried to get information from the Council, we hit a brick wall."

When they finally did get details, the amendments had been passed by the Local Area Committee, on a proposal led by Cllr Callaghan and seconded by Cllr Billy Hillis.

"We contend that such a significant change to the plan after the public display should have been brought back to Kilcullen for further public consultation," she said. "It involves a 30-metre setback of the Liffey Linear Park, which is protected for Leisure and Amenity use. Our main point is that we weren't given the chance to discuss the proposal in relation to our original one."

She noted that the Riverbank Manor site is 'isolated', and probably won't be built and available until the second phase of the development is completed. "That could be ten years," she said.

Other downsides were the lack of toilet facilities in the area, and the proposal didn't detail any matters such as parking.

"Most of all, we were disappointed that none of the councillors who passed this rezoning didn't come back and tell us it was being proposed," Orla O'Neill concluded. JJ Warren concurred, noting that a number of the same councillors had been 'working with us' on the original plan.

He also said that the developer could apply for amendments to whatever planning permission he received which 'could delay the playground for many years'.

"Besides, putting a playground there would be a recipe for disaster -- it would be between a river and a construction traffic road."

Orla O'Neill made it clear that the meeting had been called to 'listen to the community' on the issue. "If everybody here decided that the new proposal was a better one than our original, then we'd be happy to let it go that way."

She also said that the Committee was finding it difficult to get any response from the Council to their queries. "We don't have any guarantee that the money promised will actually be spent," she said.

The meeting also heard that the only thing holding up the beginning of the transfer of the land from the Diocese was the lack of a letter for such commitment from the Council.

JJ Warren said the Council had suggested that the provision of a new entrance to the Community Centre from the link road across Pinkeen Stream could require an expenditure of up to 200,000 euros.

"We're still trying to get clarification on that," he said. "They're talking about a 'bridge', but all it needs is a simple culvert. If they gave us 10,000 euros we could build it."

When the presentation was completed, Cllr Callaghan said that there is 'no doubt' the Community Centre site is the 'ideal one'. "It would be absolutely fantastic," he said. "But the reality is that it's not going to happen. There are 200,000 euros available for the playground, but there's no money for the rest, which could cost between 400,000-500,000 euros."

And he was adamant that whatever alternative from a developer which was incorporated in the Local Area Plan 'would be delivered'. He vehemently rejected criticism that there had been any sleight of hand in the passing of the rezoning. "It was an open meeting which anyone could have attended, so don't be coming back to the councillors on it."

He also said there had been a 'long gap' waiting on a response from the Diocese over the land transfer. "Personally, I don't care where the playground is built," he added. "But the money won't be there forever."

JJ Warren retorted that Cllr Callaghan was being 'disingenuous', and that the meeting may have been open but nobody observing it could have made any input.

In subsequent discussion it was revealed that the Council official in charge of the project spending could 'probably' deliver it if the site was 'moved a certain number of yards'.

This was interpretated to mean that the National School would not get back the existing access road to the Community Centre in return for giving land for the playground. This would save the Council the expense of providing the new entrance from the link road, but Cllr Callaghan and his Green Party colleague were told bluntly that this was a 'non runner'.

Cllr Power told the meeting that Kilcullen wasn't the only town that needed playgrounds. "We have to provide them for all the other towns in the area, and we don't have enough money to do that."

He also complained that the Local Area councillors hadn't heard from the Committee 'for a long time'. "We have to look at the bigger picture," he said.



This wasn't let go uncontested. "We've been lacking support from Kildare County Council for years," Kilcullen Community Action chairman Kieron Forde bluntly told him. "You guys left Orla and her Committee out on a limb while they were trying to put together a difficult project."

Ray Kelly from Kilcullen Soccer Club said that KIldare County Council had provided 'nothing' to the various facilities built by the community itself. "Now there's a chance for the Council to be generous," he said.

Orla O'Neill recalled promises from the Council and its representatives that 'money was never going to be an issue' with the project. "But now it has become an issue because they may have to spend it on some infrastructure to make this work."

Riverside Manor resident Pat Canny said he was 'absolutely amazed' at what the councillors were supporting. "Already we have difficulties getting in and out of the estate. When the next phase is allowed, we'll have trucks going past our doors for seven years after the building commences. There's no way you could consider putting a playground there."

New Kilcullen resident Neil Taylor told the councillors that the community has done its part on this proposal. "Shoot for the stars on this," he exhorted, "rather than going for something that is a trade-off which would have a financial value for somebody else. There's money put aside for the playground. Ring fence it for what has been provided by the community."

Cllr Power reiterated that the Council has 'limited money'. "Talk to the developer -- he might be willing to spend some of his money on your site." That suggestion, clearly aimed at getting the Council and its members off the hook, didn't go down well either.

Bottom line, nobody at the meeting looked like going away with votes in mind for any of the Naas Area councillors when they come up for re-election next summer. "They showed their arrogance tonight," one member of the audience said afterwards.

"The Council officials are as bad," said another, originally a member of the Playground Committee. "When we went to them first, one told us we were just a 'Bored Housewives Club' looking for something to do."

The two councillors, on their way to another meeting, said it 'hadn't been the worst' one they had been at.

Orla O'Neill, chair of the Playground Committee, said they were very glad that the councillors had heard the 'unanimity' of the community that it definitely wanted the playground at the Community Centre site.

And nothing that had been said by the councillors had changed the mindset of the Committee over the future of the facility. "There are so many pluses in our proposal, we are convinced that if we have to fight a little harder to get it done, then that is what we will do."

Brian Byrne.