KildareNet News

NAAS 22 January 2003: A material contravention application for a proposed cinema complex in the Phase 2 development of the Millennium Business Park outside Naas failed last night amid absolutely extraordinary scenes of rancour and confusion.

The proposal by IMC (Naas) Ltd, which was recommended by county manager Niall Bradley, failed to get support from the required six members of Naas Town Council. Prior to the vote, when it was clear that the application would fail, Mr Bradley asked for the vote to be ‘deferred’. But Cllr Mary Glennon insisted it go ahead.

Kildare County Council senior planner Pat Gallagher was also part of a very strong presentation in favour of the development. The recommendation included an 8-paged detailed document signed off by Pat Gallagher and Naas Town Clerk Declan Kirrane.

The first councillor to speak was Cllr Pat O’Reilly who said it was ‘one of the best reports we have received in relation to a material contravention’ since he had been elected to the council. “I have no doubt it would be a good development for Naas,”he said. “Otherwise, some other town will take it on board.”

He then proposed the material contravention of the 1999 Naas Town Plan to allow the cinema complex in Millennium Park Phase Two. It was seconded by Cllr Willie Callaghan.

Cllr Callaghan said he believed ‘vast amounts of people would use it, especially on Fridays and Saturdays’. “As it is, people from Naas have to go to Liffey Valley or The Square,” he added. “We’ve lost out to Newbridge with factories and shops and I don’t want Naas to be on the losing end again.”

Cllr Anthony Egan said there was already a material contravention agreed by the previous Council for a cinema complex, to be located in Oldtown. “Would the planner see this [proposal] as a potential change of the whole direction of how we view Naas as a compact town centre?” he asked, and also queried if there should be a prerequisite to have the motorway interchange link in place first, to allow for traffic to the cinema from the greater catchment area.

Cllr Pat McCarthy voiced his concern about the application calling it ‘a piecemeal approach to planning’ and he wanted to know what will happen to the Oldtown land already zoned for a cinema? He said he was ‘painfully aware’ of the traffic congestion on both the Sallins and Monread Roads right now, with the Monread Road particularly choking with traffic, and he would not support the material contravention application in the absence of the motorway link.”

Cllr McCarthy also noted that the planning permission to upgrade the existing ‘farm’ bridge across the motorway within three years to access Millennium Park, ‘is now up’. He wondered if the interchange link will be in place within three years.

“Until such time as these things are sorted out, I am not in favour of bringing any more traffic into the area I live in and where people are browned off with traffic,” he told the officials. He also noted that traffic levels will rise at night if the cinema complex were to go ahead. “Traffic on the Sallins and Monread roads is already way above acceptable levels,” he replied.

Cllr Mary Glennon said the local Dara cinema is still serving the town well and people like it because they can walk to it.

At this stage the Mayor extended the meeting (which normally ends at 10pm) to 11pm for further discussion of the matter.

Cllr Glennon pointed out that there is ‘never an off-peak time now on the Sallins Road’. “It’s always busy,” she said, and, referring to the planner’s suggestion that people would come by train to the cinema complex in Millennium Park (with feeder buses transferring them to the complex, if necessary) she reminded him that the last train out is at 9.30pm.

Cllr Glennon said her main objection was that while the developers got rezoning for nearly 300 acres of land in the 1999 plan, including zoning for a multi-cinema and bowling alley on their Oldtown site, yet they now wanted to rezone another 4.6 acres for the cinema elsewhere.

“All [the previous cinema rezoning] seems to have disappeared off the plan altogether despite the fact that a lot of people in that area would have welcomed it, she said. “We were told Millennium Park would be a blueprint for the rest of the country. It looks as if the plan is now to move the town centre out and turn Naas into a ghost town.” She said she would not support anything that would do that and affect the businesses in Naas.

Cllr Seamie Moore lamented what he termed her ‘negativity’. “Boy, do we need development in Naas,” he said with visible enthusiasm. He pointed out that there were objections to the cinema zoning on the Sallins Road and said this ‘is a way of overcoming that hiccup’.

He also said the 8,000 people in Monread would welcome a cinema in Millennium Park, 200 yards down the road, and added that the application was ‘a great opportunity’. He said the local Dara Cinema is to close soon and ‘everyone knows this’.

Cllr Charlie Byrne said he was amazed to see a planner ‘trying to sell’ a material contravention to councillors. “Developers seeking material contraventions have often come to my door to provide information on their proposals, though this has not happened this time. I would like to see the developers in this instance and hear their case. Though I don’t know what they should be afraid of.”

Cllr Byrne recalled that Millennium Park had been heralded as a ‘business park’ and asked how many jobs a cinema complex would bring to Naas? “I’m afraid that everything within the whole Oldtown estate will now eventually end up in Millennium Park, with more material contraventions.”

He said the cinema would be welcome if it could be located in the town ‘for the ordinary Joe Citizen’. “You’d have to have a motorbike to get to this one, or get a bus from Sallins,” he said. “So how are you going to get there from Naas?”

He also questioned the viability of the complex with the opening hours suggested.

At this stage, Cllr Mary Glennon reminded members that under Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001, councillors must declare if they have ‘any pecuniary or any business interest’ associated with the people behind the venture.

Her question created a major uproar, and amid the clamour, mayor Timmy Conway replied ‘it’s up to the individual’. Cllr Glennon then asked the town clerk to clarify the situation, adding firmly that ‘this is law’, and added that the members needed to know who was behind the proposed development.

Shouting continued, and town manager Tommy Skehan said that the application referred to ‘a green field site at Millennium Park’. “The applicant is IMC (Naas) Ltd for a development at Millennium Park,’ he said, without disclosing any names of the company’s promoters.

“I’m disappointed with the answer,” Cllr McCarthy said, at which point the mayor told him to ‘stop disrupting the meeting’.

Cllr McCarthy pointed out that according to the material supplied by the Planning Dept of Kildare County Council, permission had previously been granted for a cinema complex to Bandenberry Ltd (a sister company of Lehmex International, the developers of Millennium Park).

In response to questions from Cllr Charlie Byrne as to why the original cinema project was not going ahead, planner Pat Gallagher said ‘a detailed answer is ... on the planning file’.

A further 30 mins extension time was agreed at this stage.

County Manager Niall Bradley then asked that the vote be deferred. However Cllr Glennon would have none of it and asked that it be taken there and then.

Mayor Timmy Conway said he supported the material contravention application and believed the cinema would be supported by the people of Naas. “All the officials and planners are in favour of it,” he said.

At this Mr Bradley said it ‘comes down to what your vision is for Naas’. He said locating cinemas in the middle of a town is ‘the wrong location’, as they generate increased traffic in the town. “If [the cinema] doesn’t happen in Naas, I know precisely where it’s going to happen instead,” he told councillors.

The county manager also warned that Millennium Park ‘is an integral part’ to development of the town. “If it doesn’t work, the town of Naas is going to be decimated,” he added. “It is critically important that the development works.”

Cllr Pat McCarthy said it had been portrayed that ‘if you are against this application, you are against the idea of having a cinema at all’. “There is already land zoned for this purpose, which is not being used,” he said.

Town clerk Declan Kirrane said the land zoned ‘is not in the name of the current company making this material contravention’.

Cllr Glennon demanded to know why were two retail developments on the nearby Monread Road turned down ‘because of traffic’, if this proposed development would also attract traffic.

Amid continued clamouring around the council table, Cllr Willie Callaghan shouted that it was ‘a sad day if these people across the table decide not to allow a public cinema for Naas’.

Finally, with no abatement of the rowing, the Mayor said he was putting the material contravention to a vote.

Cllrs Charlie Byrne, Mary Glennon and Pat McCarthy voted against it. Cllr Anthony Egan abstained, which the mayor said would be ‘taken as a vote against’.

A visibly furious Cllr Seamie Moore then alleged that ‘people have made an effort to pull Naas down tonight’. Following a remark from Cllr Glennon about ‘declarations of interest’, he accused her of ‘villifying’ his character.

“Bring me to court and I will answer it,” Cllr Glennon threw back. “I would love it. Jesus, I would love to see you in court!”

By this time, without it being declared ended, the meeting had effectively evaporated, with only a baffled-looking county manager remaining in his seat.

In a parting shot, Cllr Moore called Cllr Glennon ‘a hopeless situation’.

“Your family is living off Naas,” he told her.

The meeting ended at 11.15pm.