NAAS, 19 June 2001: by Trish Whelan. The formal opening of Monread District Park is planned for Thursday, 28 June 2001. The opening ceremony will be performed by UDC chairman Cllr Pat O’Reilly before he leaves office.
But the long promised playground planned for the park will not be one of the attractions on the day. Funding of £100,000 is already in place to provide the Council’s first playground, planned for Monread District Park.
Cllrs Pat McCarthy and Mary Glennon want the official opening to be postponed until the playground is ready. However, Council officials said the procedure of hiring consultants, receiving tenders etc would prove too long a delay.
Cllr Anthony Egan said he was under the impression that consultants were already working on the project. "It should have been up and running for the summer holidays," he said.
Mary Glennon says she will not be attending the opening because she thinks ‘it is an insult to the people of Naas’.
Pat McCarthy called the opening ‘premature’ since there seems to be no clear date as to when the playground will be in place. He recalled how when Cllr O’Reilly was elected chairman of Naas UDC last year, he had made the provision of a playground for the town one of his ‘top priorities’. “But it doesn’t seem to be any nearer reality,” he added.
Officials said the playground will certainly go ahead. The trouble is nobody knows where exactly it will go, or when it will start. “Even the Monread District Park Action Group aren’t even sure of its exact location,” Cllr McCarthy added.
Cllr Glennon has also criticised Pat O’Reilly for suggesting the swimming pool be relocated from the Fair Green to an out of town site on the Caragh Road.
She also believes such a move could result in a car park on the existing pool site.
©2001trishwhelan/knn