NAAS 04 February 2003: Putting a cinema complex in the middle of the Millennium Park campus would have been 'crazy' according to one of Leinster's most experienced cinema experts.
Paddy Melia of the Dara Cinema in Naas, who manages bookings for 13 screens throughout the country, was commenting in the wake of the recent failure of a material contravention to the Naas Town Development Plan, in which the promoters of Millennium Park wanted a change to plan to allow a cineplex on more than four acres.
"The real place to have a cinema is close to the centre of the town, central to the whole local population and which can be accessed on foot by many people," Paddy told KNN after the failure of the application at a recent meeting of Naas Town Council. "In fact, the ideal location for a new cinema complex for Naas would be in the Devoy Barracks development."
The Devoy development will have a mix of social and private housing, but also is the location for the new headquarters for both Kildare County Council and Naas Town Council, and so will have ample car parking facilities available for other use outside of office hours.
It is also close to the town centre, so that people going to the cinema can have easy access to other facilities such as restaurants and pubs for after-film activities - none of which would be easily available from the middle of Millennium Park.
The material contravention failed because of opposition by councillors who recalled to the meeting that there was already a rezoning in the Town Plan at Oldtown Demesne for a cineplex and hotel, on property already owned by the Millennium Park promoters.
The contravention failed to get the required majority of councillors despite the strenuous efforts of Kildare County Manager Niall Bradley and a phalanx of county officials on the night.
Councillors who didn't support the motion - which ended up in extraordiary scenes of rancour from colleagues anxious to have the material contravention go through - are currently the subject of allegations that they 'have deprived Naas of a cinema'.
On the evidence, any such allegation is patently untrue.
(NB - the Dara Cinema is to close at the end of August.)
