Category Archives: Johnstown

Johnstown Updates

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I’ve spent a bit of time in Johnstown over the past while, meeting and talking with residents and I’ve itemised below a few of the things I’ve been working on.

Flooding
The village has suffered chronic flooding in recent years and the last few Summers haven’t helped. I looked into this last year and a meeting ocurred between the council and the OPW (Office public works) last Autumn. A consultants report followed and I understand next steps are for KCC to meet with the Johnstown Community Association and to then engage in wider public consultation. I was in the council chamber the other day and the director of services paid particular praise to one man (unnamed), a Kill native, who apparently gave them a tour of the subterranean landscape and was a font of extremly helpful local knowledge. Once the works are documented and agreed, I understand that funding shouldn’t be a problem.

Transport and Traffic
The bus stop in Johnstown is badly positioned, also the old shelter was never replaced. I raised this with Bus Eireann and also that the parking spaces at bus stop are badly located and when occupied can cause difficulties for buses pulling in and out. They agreed with me on all counts but advised that they no longer erect shelters and that is now the responsibility of the council or in a high traffic area an advertising company may oblige (unlikely to work here as the motorway traffic cannot see the shelter so not enough advertising interest). I have raised these issues to the county council along with a number of local traffic and signage issues.

Old Garden Centre
I’ve said before, and it remains my strong view, that the former garden centre site provides an amenity opportunity for the village centre, in the form of a park, playground or other community facility. I contacted the NRA and Kildare County Council on this last year and whilst the initial plan was standard site disposal I understood that was open to review. Johnstown Community Association has developed detailed plans for a community facility at this site of which I am very supportive. This site would appear an excellent location for such a facility.

Johnstown Area Plan
The Johnstown area plan is currently up for renewal and a draft plan should go on display later this year. I made a pre-draft submission last November which covered the Garden Centre site, traffic issues, amenity provision, flooding, education and sporting facilities which can all be seen here.

Past first post on local area plans

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A number of local area plans are currently under review and pre-draft submissions were taken last week.

I think the process offers an important opportunity for community input, often the dates tick by with only a few landowners sending anything for consideration, it is important the wider view is taken by someone too and the local community are usually best placed to give the planners a steer with this.

The LAPs now under review in the Naas area are: Kill, Johnstown, Kilteel and TwoMile House.

In some cases I made submissions of my own, as well as meeting with local groups in other cases.

Here is:

My TwoMile House submission

My Johnstown submission

(An earlier submission I made on the Sallins plan can also be seen here)

Now the pre-draft submissions have been taken, the planners will get to work on a first draft area plan for each place, and they will go on display in the new year. There will be another round of public consultation at that stage.

Playtime on hold at Johnstown Garden site

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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.

Cool for schools

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I’ve spoken before about the pressing case for a new school at Kill, and progress had gone particularly well recently with permission granted, site procured, tenders issued etc during the Summer. Well the final piece of the puzzle came last weekend when the Minister included it amongst seven schools in Kildare to get funding and proceed to construction phase..

Four schools in the Naas area got funding, so particularly pleased about that. Carragh National School was approved for a new 15-classroom extension and general purpose hall , Kill will now get its new 32 teacher school at Kill hill, Scoil Bhride in Athgarvan gets the go ahead for construction and out of prefabs and Naas CBS post-primary finally gets its extension.

EU red tape means a retender is required but it’s only a formality and the schools are expected to be under construction by mid-2009. I had been in touch with the Minister and our Deputies on these issues, and am equal parts delighted and relieved by this news. Considering only 25 schools around the country were included on this years funding, getting 4 in the local area is pretty good going. Now bring on the builders!

Permission granted for Kill Primary School

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Some good news came in last week for parents and pupils of Kill National School and surrounds, with the news that permission had been granted for a new 960 pupil facility to proceed at Kill Hill. The site had alreay been aquired and the planning application was submitted in June so it the process has been going reasonably according to plan over the past year or so at any rate. The school is billed as a 32 teacher campus but will initially function as a 24 teacher one and scale up over time. It will also include Basketball Courts, Hard Playing Area, Playing Pitch, 2 Libraries and a General Purposes Room.


The old school in Kill back in use as spillover accomodation

The current school in Kill, like a lot of others in the area, has just about coped with the strains of population growth over the last number of years as the commuter belt expanded beyond its buckle size in recent times. I know from speaking to several families in Kill, Johnstown and all around the catchment area that the school is the number one issue for many of them and has been for some time. Enquiries I made earlier in the Summer drew a positive response from the Mininster, Batt O’Keeffe TD, when he “confirmed that the design phase of the project is progressing well and is on target” and the permission granted is another welcome milestone along the route.

Whilst all has gone smoothly to date, and I am loth to jinx the positive karmic progress around the project, I believe it would be tempting fate to commit to any dates at this stage, given the current funding climate. The original projected opening was to be in September 2009 and I have heard nothing to suggest this will not be met, however it will be an uneasy next while while we await funding confirmation from the Minister. Myself, and I know Deputies Brady and Fitzpatrick likewise, will all continue to state the case and ensure the Minister remains aware of the urgency and priority of this development.

Funding aside, in terms of the construction timeline, it is certainly possible to make rapid progress, we have seen in Sallins school where extensions have literally gone up each Summer over the past couple of years. I was down at Sallins NS yesterday morning, when my own children returned to school after the break, and all the parents were taken with the new buildings that have flown up. A two storey extension houses the older children whilst the new library and PE hall facilities have all been added in recent times. An end to prefabs finally.

So another milestone met and good news for all but my view this is one to stick on until the children are literally walking through the door.