Shock at playground funds axeing

The group which has been working hard to provide a children’s playground for many years were shocked last week when they got a letter from Kildare County Council that no funding is now available for the project.

The angry Playground Committee in Kilcullen has now demanded of councillors that they regain the previously ‘ring-fenced’ funding.

“The specifica reason, we were told, is central Government owes the Council monies, and it is a cash flow issue,” says Orla O’Neill, who has been leading the Playground Committee in Kilcullen for several years. “We are shocked and disappointed, as we had been reassured many times that the Leisure & Amenity Fund has a specific ringfenced amount of €200,000 for the playground, and that neither funding nor financing was an issue.”

In the past few weeks, the Playground Committee had reached an agreement in principle on a plan which would allow the transfer of a site from Scoil Bhride to the Council for the proposed playground site.

Ms O’Neill says it is ‘not acceptable’ that Kilcullen is denied a playground due to the inability of elected representatives and paid public servants’ inability ‘to manage basic financial processes’.

A meeting of the Playground Committee is being convened to decide next steps.