NAAS: 5 April 2001: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. A development company which was recently granted planning permission for a business park at Newbridge Road, Naas (above), has accused Naas UDC of ‘double accounting’ in making it a condition that it pays for road improvements, water supply, and other services.
Grangemont Holdings Ltd, based at Leinster Mills, Naas (right), also objects to being asked by the authority to pay for the building of a roundabout at the entrance to the site. The company says the UDC and Kildare County Council have been allocated a grant from the Department of the Environment for a road ‘linking the Caragh Road to Newbridge Road’, and it has been ‘led to believe' by KCC that this will be the road to service its development.
In an appeal to An Bord Pleanala, Grangemont’s Dermot O’Rourke (left) also says that the company should not be asked to build the roundabout because no such roundabout has been designed by the local authority, nor is it a ‘movement objective’ in the Naas UDC Development Plan. He also says the requirement is invalid because it would not be in the company’s land holding.
Grangemont’s objection to being asked to pay for a special development levy water demand of £1,000 per 125 sq mt floor area is based on its contention that a ‘sister company’ developing the adjoining Millennium Park is already spending £13.9 million in infrastructural works in the immediate vicinity of the Newbridge Road business park.
Mr O’Rourke also says a levy of £96,000 for road improvements should not be charged as ‘we are currently spending £14.5 million’ to improve the roads in Naas. In addition, a £216,000 demand ‘in respect of proposed services’ is inequitable because the associated company ‘is the largest provider of services in Naas’. He also points out inconsistencies in arriving at a figure for the development levy, showing that Grangemont is being charged over £28,000 extra based on a charge per acre.
“All conditions relating to financial contributions on this permission are a form of double accounting, and we ask that they be deleted from any decision,” Mr O’Rourke says.
The development will include 67 light industrial and commercial units and offices. A third party objection to the permission has also been lodged with ABP by Mark and Lesleyanne Kavanagh of Morrell Lawns, Monread Road.