There was a small degree of Flanagans Ball with a few amendments stepping in again and out again over the rounds of consultation, but the plan was considered done and dusted at this stage and all that remained was the official stamp at the next council meeting.

The land in question – proposed Amenity in line with resident submissions

So it was with some curiosity that residents of Sallins Pier and Sallins Wharf picked a flyer off their mats last weekend. The estates (where I live myself) had been successful in a campaign to have the bypass rerouted from running through them the previous year, and in the area plan a very significant number of residents had made submissions for that green space to now become amenity for the use of the estate – formalising a precedent that already existed for several years, where the residents not only used that green space but paid for its upkeep through maintenance collections by the residents committees. Some history here.

Anyway the flyer was from the developer / landowner. The green space having been reserved for the bypass, was never actually aquired by the council and remained the property of the original developer. Now whilst a compulsory purchase would have arisen had the bypass gone ahead, no such provision exists for the amenity zoning and hence something of a grey area is created.

So the developer has proposed that residents agree to reverse out the amenity zoning in exchange for concessions in a development scheme on the land if residential zoning is reinstated. Now whilst I can appreciate the landowner is not best pleased with the situation, surely a dialogue would have been better instigated last Autumn when they were attempting to appeal the residents submission rather than now, 6 days before the plan is due to go live.
Also while the flyer mentions an appeal on the zoning, it does not mention that appeal has already been made and has already been rejected by the county manager. Finally whilst a similar situation exists in Castlesize estate, in that case there appears to have been an acceptance of the position, rather than an attempt to reverse, via draft plan or otherwise.

To recap some of the reasons behind the amenity zoning are as follows:

- That green space is used daily by residents for amenity, for kids to play, to walk dogs, etc etc
- The green space has and continues to be maintained by residents own monies and efforts
- The carriage way into the estate was never designed even for the existing number of houses
- Further development on that space would strain the infrastructure on exising houses
- There is a lack of open space within the village; green space is at a premium
- The county manager and planners have recommended the space become amenity

Now at this late stage of the game the only way the county managers decision can be reversed is if a majority of councillors vote to overturn the residents submissions at the next full meeting Monday coming 26th Jan. The members are listed here. (Cheat sheet with just contact details here – kildare_county_councillors)

I am sure their phones will be busy in both directions over the coming days..

To give some background, the village has grown from probably 500 people in the mid-nineties to nearly 5,000 by the early naughties and the nature and geographic spread of the village has changed accordingly. Whilst there was always a need for a bypass, ironically that need became most pressing just as the route threatened to slice the village in two as the expanded community now sits on both sides of the original route. Many people who bought houses in Sallins Pier, Sallins Wharf, Castlesize in particular but also Hunters Wood, Oldbridge and others were blissfully unaware that council plans showed that lovely green space in front of their houses to be actually ‘road reservation’ i.e. the proposed location for taking all the HGVs and through traffic off the main street but into the estates instead.

Now living in one of those houses myself, I first became aware of the issue when we asked our solicitor what the faint dotted line on the plans were! It was the day we signed so we had little option or appetite to withdraw and find out more at that stage.

Anyway things moved on and between myself and some concerned colleagues on the residents association we set about making our case to the various authorities that we would not take this lightly. Deputy Fitzpatrick also threw his support behind a route review having discussed the matter with me and other residents, to cut a long story short all our efforts were rewarded when Kildare County Council earlier this year put on display a number of route options, including the original through our estates, but with enough alternatives to suit anyone’s fancy but a grumblers (to quote my nan!)

click the map to enlarge

There was much local debate about the various options and we sought to find consensus with at least one public meeting in the community centre which I co-chaired, and eventually the majority view appeared to favour the cyan/red route as shown hatched on the map and endorsed by the community council. Although this route makes much sense in terms of traffic flows in and out of Naas as well as linking with the proposed N7 interchange, I had slight personal concerns about this route, as it crosses over the Liffey and Canal and ventures into hitherto green belt territory in some of the rare amenity spaces we have. However assurances were given that the route would be sympathetic to environmental surrounds and should be far enough out to leave a green belt in place around the village environs and preserve heritage such as the Leinster Aqueduct.

This was borne out in submissions to the council where over 75% of feedback backed this route and it now looks set to proceed. There will be a further public consultation as some residents in the direct path of this route have requested a slight deviation to minimise the disruption so this proposed alteration will go on display shortly and the process will repeat only this time with a focus on the selected option and variants.

At the end of the day the road is needed, it has to go somewhere, it’s no longer cutting through the housing estates and it’s spent twenty years gathering dust in the county engineer’s offices, so it’s progress, it’s positive and now bring it on.