New town for mid-Kildare mooted by councillor

The concept of building a complete new town in mid-Kildare, somewhere along an axis line between Kilcullen to Caragh, has been floated at Kildare County Council, writes Brian Byrne. The idea was raised in a motion by longtime Naas-based councillor Seamie Moore, at the recent meeting of the full council.

Cllr Moore says building a new town with appropriate community infrastructure would be an alternative to continuing to add populations to the existing main towns of Naas and Newbridge, where sports and social infrastructures are already way behind the needs of their communities.

"It's not a new idea," the councillor told the Diary, recalling the 'Myles Wright Triangle' in town planner Prof Wright's Advisory Plan for the Dublin Region of 1967, which envisaged managed equal growth for Naas, Newbridge and Kilcullen to partly offset the expansion of Dublin. That subsequently didn't happen for Kilcullen because links to the county sewerage system were not provided to the village until 2001.

Cllr Moore's motion included the idea of designating an Economic Corridor between Naas and Newbridge, along the commuter catchment route of the M7/M9 and the Dublin-Cork Rail Line, and that the council should write to the National Development Planners and East Midland Regional Authority, asking them to consider the overall proposal. "This would reduce the indicative expectation of future population overload of Naas and Newbridge and allow community amenities and community infrastructure facilities to be developed in those already overpopulated towns."

The councillor has been highlighting the fact that the larger towns have insufficient capacity in clubs such as GAA and other amenities, forcing families to bring their children to outlying areas to get some playing time. "If we are loaded with a population increase that's expected to be maybe 10,000 or more for Naas over the next ten years, and similarly for Newbridge and Celbridge, these areas face serious social problems because they won't have the community facilities."

By taking the expansion of existing towns 'out of the equation', the councillor says the new town idea would ease the pressure on existing ones. He says he doesn't want to specify a particular location for the new town, but 'somewhere along the M7-M9 commuter corridor' and 'not too far removed' from the Dublin-Cork railway line. "I'm trying to broad-brush the idea, to put it up for discussion."

He references previous examples of the new town at Shannon, initiated in the 1960s, and more recent new town constructions in the Dublin area. "Some of these didn't initially work out as planned, but they are more on stream now."

Cllr Moore says his idea has received positive reaction, both cross-party from his council colleagues and from KCC planners.

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