Discussions on Community Centre walk/cycleway
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| Pic courtesy Google. |
The idea came from a need to substantially refurbish an existing walkway which goes around the Kilcullen AFC soccer pitch. An old path, it is narrow and has a very much deteriorated surface. It also links onto unofficial accesses to the nearby Avondale estate.
An increased level of urgency for repairs to the pathway has arisen because of more people using the area for walking and exercise during the course of the recent pandemic lockdown. The section from the Nicholastown Road to the car park at the All Weather Pitch was restored in 2014 by Kildare County Council with the help of development levies funds paid by Scoil Bhride.
The background to extending it to include a cycleway comes because increased funding for cycling infrastructure will be available in forthcoming national Budgets, and projects that are 'shovel ready' will be given priority. The cycleway may become an integral part of a development plan currently in the making for the Community Centre.
The Centre board and management have already established the route of what could become an enclosed walk/cycleway that takes in most of the perimeter of the complex. Lighting would also be provided so that it becomes an all-year facility.
A future-proofing element would include the potential to link with walk/cycle access to external areas, including the proposed Link Road, Kilcullen's GAA campus, and perhaps to the new bus shelter planned to back into the Nuns Garden, near the traffic lights. "All that would be long-term and not part of our area," says Community Centre Committee chair Ronan Murphy. "But those kind of connections would improve safe non-car access to schools and the town."
The project is already garnering support from local representatives. During this last week, Cllrs Fiona McLoughlin Healy and Tracey O'Dwyer have had separate on-site meetings with management of the Centre, the former with the attendance of the Local Area Engineer and the latter with Minister of State Martin Heydon TD. A representative from the Kildare Sports Partnership was also shown the idea as part of a tour of the campus during a discussion on funding for repairs and development possibilities at the Centre.
"We have a number of projects related to the Centre ongoing at any time," says Ronan Murphy. "Last year we resurfaced our All Weather Pitch, funded by savings and a Sports Capital Grant. We are currently completing the provision of a Toilet for the less-abled, which will be ready in about three weeks' time. Then we will turn our attention to repairing the path."
Ronan Murphy would like to see the initial work on refurbishing the path beginning later this year or early next year. Much of that would have to be funded from the Centre's own resources, but it is possible that extending it to a cycleway could be part-funded through a Sports Capital Grant.
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