NAAS, 30 October: by Brian Byrne. Naas UDC could pay up to 15.6% of the estimated £24 million cost of the new combined UDC/Kildare County Council headquarters on the Devoy Barracks site, but will be allocated only 4.5% of the office space in return.
That’s the bottom line calculation based on information presented to the UDC last week by Peter Minnock, director of corporate and urban affairs at Kildare County Council. But he told councillors that they will be in a 'premium position' at the front of the proposed building.
Naas’s local authority is expected to pay up to £3.75 million for its share of the project, which will take about four years to complete. Mr Minnock warned that the figures given are in ‘present value’ and are subject to building inflation at an estimated 12-14%.
The project will provide a total of 8,500 sq m of space, of which Naas UDC will occupy 385 sq m. A further fourth floor may be added for KCC’s use at a later stage, bringing the total area to 11,400 sq m.
Mr Minnock noted that the 290 people at the present KCC HQ at St Mary’s are in a ‘1930s building in very poor conditions’. Building a new headquarters is the only way for the authority to be able to offer service to the public in a ‘productive environment’, he said, adding that the council also needed to accommodate at least another 100 people.
Naas town clerk Declan Kirrane, in response to queries from councillors, said the current authorised staff levels for the UDC were 20. The planned new offices will allow the UDC to have up to 25 staff, and he said such a situation will see the authority ‘well set up for the foreseeable future’.
The UDC will retain the top floor of the Town Hall for its public meetings, and provision might be made there for a councillors’ room, he suggested. The rest of the Town Hall will be used for community purposes.
Kildare County Council has agreed a price for St Mary’s with the area health board, which currently has staff in 12 offices around Naas. There have been recent suggestions that the council might temporarily relocate to offices in Millennium Park pending the completion of the new headquarters project.
The project will go for planning permission before Christmas.
Kildare County Council architect Brian Swan, Roisin Heneghan, architect Heneghan/Peng; and Peter Minnock, Director of Services in the Corporate and Cultural Office in Kildare County Council with a model of the civic offices planned for Devoy Barracks.
©2001brianbyrne/knn