Duleek land ‘ideal’ for infill development

A PROPOSAL to change the planning zoning on a slice of Duleek land from agricultural to residential in the proposed new county development plan for Meath has gone through by vote of councillors at a meeting of the county council.

The 40 councillors have been considering the plan for 2021-2027 at a series of council meetings over several months.

Fianna Fail Cllr Stephen McKee proposed that the slice of land, which would provide about 30 homes on the R150 road between The Belfry and Bathe Abbey be rezoned for what is described as infill development. In the draft development land, officials had described Duleek as a “small town” within the hierarchy of the draft plan and the focus would be on facilitating local development in addition to consolidating employment growth.

Cllr McKee said that the piece of land referred to in his notice of motion at the council meeting was ideal for infill development. It was his aim to persuade the council to install traffic calming measures, footpaths and a pedestrian crossing in this area which was located on a very busy road adjacent to Duleek GAA grounds. The cllr’s proposal was supported by 26 councillors.

In a separate notice of motion dealing with the need for a bypass of Duleek, Cllr McKee said at present the town was “choking with traffic”. He wanted to see a firm objective in the plan for putting in place such a bypass which would improve the quality of life in the town.

Director of Services Des Foley said that the county council had inserted Julianstown bypass a preferred project at this time because of the volume of traffic going through the village however, a bypass of Duleek was still an objective of the council.