15 January 2004: Bad planning by the local authority was blamed for ‘turning residents against eachother and estate against estate’ at a meeting last night organised by the Jigginstown Roads Action Group.
The residents are fighting a proposed link road through their estates as in the current Naas Town Plan, and want a new plan adopted to relieve the pressure on the South West area of Naas which already suffers from high levels of traffic.
The residents want the development of the Ploopluck Bridge as stated in the original planning permission for Caragh Court estate in 1992 to prevent the opening of the Caragh Road area for further development. They also suggest that the Aldi Road, which will eventually link up with the M7, be used for non local commercial traffic.
The proposed link road through the middle of Jigginstown Park and Jigginstown Green estates has been approved in Naas Town Plans. But both the 1992 and the 1999 Town Plans show the areas designated for amenity use. Yet the Jigginstown Park/Green builder John Connolly was granted planning permission to build in 1994. This fact was not included in the 1999 Naas Town Plan.
As highlighted on KNN, Kildare County Councillors were recently asked to vote on the proposed link road using for reference an out-of-date map relating to the 1999 Town Plan which did not include Jigginstown Green.
Last night JRAG said they were sensitive to the needs of residents in Caragh Court but believe that a road through Jigginstown will not solve the problem for motorists and pedestrians of that area. They claim the road would actually compound matters, leaving the Caragh Road open to more residential and commercial developments which would increase traffic volumes, including heavy vehicles.
They also claim it would create further congestion on the Newbridge Road which cannot cope with the current volumes of traffic from the existing feeder roads, i.e. Sarto Road, the Osprey Hotel, Caragh Road, Aldi development and Newhall roundabout - all within one kilometre of eachother.
JRAG chairperson Rioghnagh Bracken felt it was ‘time the people in the area come together, liase with the planning authority and try and sort out something once and for all’.
Items up for discussion last night included a footbridge beside the dangerously angled Ploopluck Bridge, the proposed new link road from Millennium Park road to the Newbridge Road, proposed development behind Caragh Court, improved safety for all residents and improved traffic management.
Speakers included Barry Brophy on Waterways Ireland’s interest in the Ploopluck Bridge, Michelle Williams on Duchas’ opinion, Tony Shine on the high number of road traffic accidents in the area of Jigginstown Park/Green and Arconagh estates, and BD (Des) Houlihan outlined the eventual connection of the Millennium Road to the M7 at this side of Naas Town.
Barry Brophy said the Ploopluckbridge was unsafe for pedestrians in its current state and that WWI are in favour of a footbridge alongside the structure. He cited examples of where this is happening elsewhere. He reckoned the cost of a footbridge would be around €50,000 yet the Council ‘are looking at spending €3 million on a new bridge and new roads’.
Mr Brophy said a lot of Caragh Road traffic will opt to use the Aldi road when it opens and this will reduce traffic on the Ploopluck bridge. He said some bridges, like in Sallins, have been widened to cope with traffic and WWI have indicated there are bridges being dismantled and re-erected elsewhere and a new one built in their place. He felt it would be ‘detrimental’ to put more traffic onto the Ploopluck Bridge.
Michelle Williams had liased with An Taisce and Duchas (the Heritage Body) on the issue. She said they do not have any record of the bridge being investigated for a preservation order and the bridge is not listed.
She said there is the option of putting in a pedestrian bridge alongside, or of dismantling the bridge and putting it elsewhere. “Even if they do list it, there’s a loophole,” she suggested.
