19 January 2004: The recent public meeting in Naas Town House Hotel organised by the Jigginstown Roads Action Group (JRAG) was attended by a number of local politicians including Deputy Bernard Durkan and Naas Town councillors Charlie Byrne, Seamie Moore, Timmy Conway, Anthony Egan, and Eibhlin Bracken.

First to speak was Deputy Bernard Durkin who suggested they wait for the new situation which would emerge when the judicial review takes place on 22 January. He offered any assistance he could.

(The High Court has granted JRAG leave to seek a judicial review of the procedures used by Kildare County Council and Naas Town Council in transferring their powers to construct the relief road and bridge that would run between Jigginstown Park and Jigginstown Green on the Newbridge Road which is part of Phase Two of the realignment of the Caragh Road. A full hearing is due to take place on 22 January. The case expected to be adjourned).

On the 200-year-old Ploopluck Bridge, Cllr Seamie Moore said there is a difference between listing for preservation and actually having a preservation order on the bridge (which is listed only). He said the problem comes from the angle of the bridge which restricts visibility. “They were all built like that at the time,” he added.

He said the Aldi route will be three-quarters of a mile into the development but there is still a further mile to the Caragh Road. “They will get permission to branch off to the Millennium Road. That does not link back to the Caragh Court situation,” he pointed out. He doesn’t think the Aldi Road is in any way a solution. “The people from Caragh can turn at Halverstown Cross and eventually link on to the Millennium Road but not from Caragh Court.”

Cllr Moore informed of his proposal to the next monthly meeting of Naas Town Council seeking ‘that Kildare County Council be asked to immediately impose a 3-ton weight limit on all vehicles presently using the Ploopluck Bridge. “How double decker buses and big waste trucks get across the Ploopluck Bridge I don’t know,” he said.

He could not see Caragh Court people ‘saying they will do without the bridge just for Jigginstown people’. “I think you should talk with the Council and clear some of the views,” he advised. He said the residents ‘had to be armed with as much information as the other side has’.

In a comment, a Jigginstown Park woman claimed Cllr Moore ‘had an awful cheek to come and say something like that with the [traffic] situation outside schools in the town. “How as parents we are to put our faith in the Council and assume they are going to do the right thing, is an exaggeration,” she said.

Another resident said the problem of the Ploopluck Bridge ‘has been moved down 200 yards and this will cause a major safety problem for residents of Jigginstown Park and Green’ and this could not be considered good planning. He believed the obvious solution is to do something with the Ploopluck Bridge. “We have enough of a problem trying to get out of our estate onto the Newbridge Road with the heavy traffic on that route as it is,” he added. He said the link road should come out near Chadwick’s to meet up with the proposed ring road coming in at that point from the Kilcullen Road as this would make much more sense. This was greeted with calls of ‘Hear, Hear’ from the attendance.

Cllr Eibhlin Bracken (pictured with Dermot Murphy, Adrian King, and Donal Deady) said she wanted to see roundabouts on the main Newbridge Road and at the Caragh Road.

An Arconagh resident suggested a road should go in below the old disused bridge over the canal further down the Newbridge Road which would only add 350 yards extra to the road. “Don’t go near Aldi. You don’t need a bridge,” he said. This suggestion was also greeted with applause.

Michelle Williams felt putting traffic lights onto the Newbridge Road at Jigginstown would ‘create bedlam’.

Des O’Houlihan (pictured above on right with Cllr Anthony Egan) said it was the scene of numerous accidents each week. On the Ploopluck Bridge, he believed there was no reason why the angle of the bridge could not be realigned. “That is the obvious common sense view for a new bridge.” The land needed for this, he said, has already been given over to the Council, free of charge. He recalled that 60 years ago the corresponding Ploopluck Bridge was removed at The Kennels ‘on the pretext they were going to reopen the Calverstown Canal’.

Another person wanted to know how the Council stands on the proposed link road through the estates when they haven’t even been taken in charge by the Council. He was advised that it was a condition of John Connolly’s planning permission and that the estate would eventually be taken over. “He has set aside the part of the road as a condition of his planning permission,” the chairperson added.

JRAG were accused of ‘preventing us having that road’ by a woman from Caragh Court. She was backed by another resident who said the ‘biggest problem we have is that we were promised an improvement on the bridge and a road ... but nothing happened’.

The chairperson welcomed the input from Caragh Court residents but added: “We don’t want cars and trucks through our estate.” The woman replied that residents are extremely worried when driving over the bridge each day; the danger was not just for pedestrians alone.

Another woman from Caragh Court accused JRAG of ‘scare mongering’ when they suggested a proper new Caragh Road would result in more development and heavy traffic in that area. She believed ‘on good authority’ that a local farmer there will never sell his land for development. It was also claimed that no development is planned for the Caragh Road.

However, Newbridge Road resident Des O’Houlihan countered that saying: “Anybody here is more than welcome to go to Millennium Park offices to see a display of all the proposed buildings, roads etc linking into the Caragh Road.”

Cllr Charlie Byrne said the main objective of the Council when he joined NTC was to realign the Caragh Road as the bridge is so dangerous. He claimed the road issue was ‘a continuation of the projects going on within the town, to get a chief runway around the town, running it through estates so it will only cost the builder the money’. He said bad planning decisions were ‘turning people against people and estate against estate in Naas’. He advocated: “Take down the bridge, realign the road and prevent the hardship’.

Cllr Timmy Conway (pictured with Georgina Clinch) said it was ‘ludicrous’ to bring a road through the middle of an estate when ‘you have a perfect road just down the road’. He said the Council are going to build another road down by Aldi Distribution Centre which will take a lot of heavy goods traffic. “It’s designed and ready to go with money provided to build it,” he informed. He failed to understand the logic of the two roads being delivered at the same time. He said traffic from the 200 acres already zoned for industry in Millennium Park will come down by Aldi to the Newbridge Road.

”You have to protect your rights and look to the safety of your children,” he told the Jigginstown residents. “You have a tremendous strong case because there is an alternative route, and it’s absolutely essential you bring this as far as you can.”

At this Cllr Anthony Egan (who also read out a letter from the Chairman of Caragh Court Residents Association) said it was ‘very difficult for me to listen to councillors who have proposed this road. “I am putting on the record that I never agreed to this road. It is an objective of the 1999 Naas Town Plan which some councillors agreed with.” (Editor: see note below.)

A man interrupted to say: “It was on the ‘99 plan and now they’re trying to switch it round and say it wasn’t.”

Others at the meeting claimed it was impossible to access the Newbridge Road from Arconagh and Jigginstown Park/Green with the huge levels of traffic already on the Newbridge Road.

Cllr Egan agreed a traffic management system was needed and that the pedestrian lights on the Newbridge Road ‘are causing part of the problem’. He said a wide junction was needed in that location. “If the councillors were doing their job, they should have done it right the first time.”

Des O’Houlihan recalled that a plan had showed three lanes of traffic on the road.

Ring roads were needed, another claimed, as residents could not get in or out of their estates to the Newbridge Road with the traffic. He ‘fully supported’ Caragh Court residents seeking to have improvements to the bridge and road and called the whole road and bridge ‘a disgrace and only moving the problem down to our estate’. He said the Caragh Road bridge should be sorted out ‘once and for all’. “It would solve the Caragh Court problem and the Jigginstown problem as we would not have additional traffic going through our estate.”

The closure of Basin Street to traffic was introduced at this stage. A woman said the Council had gone ahead and pedestrianised the street on foot of a 20-year-old plan, and this had ‘choked’ the Newbridge Road. “Mornings and evenings, it’s like O’Connell Street. These Town Plans need to be updated,” she said.

Cllr Egan agreed that Basin Street should not have been closed off to traffic and said he was the only councillor who had voted against the closure.

It was pointed out that the Aldi Road, between Aldi and the South Link Business Park, is only a temporary access and will later be closed. The outer ring road, the Millennium Road, will be further out the Newbridge Road, before the roundabout.

Editor's Note: The Naas Urban Draft Development Plan 1999 was passed by 6 votes to 3 after controversial deliberations that had taken two-and-a-half-years.

Councillors who voted to adopt the plan were Cllrs Paddy Behan, Seamie Moore, Timmy Conway, Willie Callaghan, Evelyn Bracken and Mary French-Coughlan. Those against were Cllrs Teresa Scanlon, Charlie Byrne and Sean English.