Residents of Stamullen ‘crying out’ for recreational amenities

The growing town of Stamullen with its young population is crying out for community facilities but local people have given up on any idea that developers might provide those facilities, a councillor told a meeting of Meath County Council.

Independent Cllr Amanda Smith had asked the council to amend its county plan 2021-2027 to include a specific objective for Stamullen that provides for a local area plan to be prepared within two years of the adoption of the county plan.

The councillors were discussing notices of motion by Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin calling for explore opportunities to acquire land to provide a high quality central public park including a playground for its 3,500 population. He said that like other towns and villages in the county, the town had a community facilities deficit. There was a very young population there, many of whom travelled to Dublin for work.

Recreation facilities provision was one issue but there were others including that the local water system was “creaking”. He was calling for urgency in tackling these local issues. “I want to get this development plan done quickly so that we can move on to the Local Area Plan. Stamullen must become a self-sustaining plan. The outstanding need is to bring more employment to the town”, Cllr Tobin said.

The cllr said he was not a fan of developer-led creation of community amenities because so many promises had been made in the past and these had not been fulfilled.

Officials told the meeting that a walkway along the river Delvin was a priority for the area, as was the provision of a playground.

Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said he had campaigned long and hard for a playground for his own area of Lobinstown and had been successful. He fully supported moves for a playground in Stamullen and said that every town in the county should be provided with one.

Cllr Smith said it was going to be very unfortunate that any provision of amenities would be left to developers. There was a provision for a further 700 houses in Stamullen but there was no community space to cater for the growing population in to the futue.

Fine Gael Cllr Sharon Tolan said that the people of Stamullen were crying lout for these badly-needed facilities. Cllr Tobin’s motion was also supported by cllrs Nick Killian, Joe Bonner and Gerry O’Connor.