KildareNet News

NAAS, 17 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Residents of Kingsfurze in Naas say they are ‘disappointed’ at the forced deferral of a motion at last night’s Town Council meeting which, if passed, would have resulted in a ‘Public Private Partnership’ arrangement to run the estate’s playground.

Following a sometimes heated debate, Mayor Timmy Conway’s motion that the Town Council ‘take over the playground’ was deferred until the next meeting in September, after town engineer John McGowan said the equipment was ‘not up to standard’ and Cllr Seamie Moore claimed that the residents ‘did not want’ a takeover. Cllr Moore also suggested that Mayor Conway could be ‘running solo’ on the matter.

But in a letter to KNN this morning, the secretary of the Kingsfurze Residents Committee said the slide and swing and their installation in the playground ARE to the required ‘EN’ standard. John Kavanagh also says Cllr Moore had been misinformed about the stance of the residents.

“The residents committee agree with working with the Town Council on this issue for the benefit of all,” Mr Kavanagh says. “Neither I, nor the chair, nor any member of the committee officially approached Cllr Moore. The committee support Cllr Conway in his efforts.”

The request that the council take over the playground came because insurance cover will lapse soon. After the September 11 atrocity in New York, a number of companies have withdrawn from sections the market, including the broker who had previously provided cover for the Kingsfurze playground.

Local authorities are, apparently, the only organisations who can insure playgrounds in this country. But councillors were told last night that such facilities could not be added to the council’s insurance unless they had been taken over by the council.

Cllr Moore said he also opposed the motion because the council was committed to developing a playground at Monread Park and ‘in two other locations’ in the town, and if they took the Kingsfurze facility in charge they would be ‘breaking that commitment’.

He also said that there was ‘no correspondence’ on the matter, that it was his information that the residents ‘had no interest in handing it over’ to the council, and he suggested that Mayor Conway ‘could be running solo’ on the matter.

During the debate, Mayor Conway became visibly agitated and repeatedly interrupted his own officials as he tried to push the motion through or have it adopted 'in principle' pending an investigation of its feasability. Cllr Willie Callaghan at one point remonstrated with him over what he said was an ‘unfair’ way of talking to acting town clerk Fiona O’Neill.

The full letter from John Kavanagh, secretary of the Kingsfurze Residents Committee, can be read here.