James Lawless – View from the Tracks

The old Johnstown garden centre was a landmark location, known to all, whether you spent a bank holiday perusing the pergolas or daily drove past it along the N7 it was somewhere we all knew well. The N7 road widening project marked the end of the line for the old site and a new improved garden centre opened up on the opposite side of the motorway. For the garden centre, the location is actually better, if anything, with the mature grounds of Kerdiffstown and Palmerstown houses bordering both sides.

The old site lay idle briefly, before being recently cleared down, under works conducted by a contractor on behalf of Kildare County Council. As with most areas, the demographic in Johnstown today experiences a lack of appropriate amenities and it was hoped by many, that the old garden centre site could be developed as a public facility, having coming into council ownership as a compulsory purchase during the roads project. It is a fine site, with adequate room for a community centre, a playground, perhaps a community garden with some shrubbery and benches etc, there were a variety of possibilities.

Earlier in the Summer I had made various attempts to determine council plans for their newly acquired land and wrote and emailed them on a few occasions. None the wiser after a few communications, I next wrote to the chief executive of the NRA, who were obviously involved in the site acquisition also. The NRA responded alright but alas the news was not good, namely that recent council works had been preparatory to a sale of the site, and that it would be offered on the open market in the near future. So much for a community playground.

All is not lost however, as the Johnstown area plan is up for renewal shortly, and I would recommend to residents that submissions highlight the amenity need and opportunity of this location. In fact, the realpolitik of it all may be that only a private developer has the means to develop facilities here, and as long as any private development can be conditioned around community gain, there may still be potential for public use of this site.