Facilities and infrastructure have not kept pace with increased population in Ashbourne

Electorate 23,013

Seats 6

Sitting Councillors:

Helen Meyer (SF) Amanda Smith (Ind) Alan Tobin (FG) Conor Tormey (FF) Suzanne Jamal (FG) and Joe Bonner (Ind)

Candidates:

Jean Murray (National Party) Charles Bobbett (Ind) Marcin Czekalski (Ind)  Martina Eskdale (Green Party) Bryan Mallon (FF) Sivakumar Murugadoss (Ind) Brandon Scott (Aontu) Paul Nolan (Social Democrats) Maria Uí Ruairc (SF) Cathal Ashbourne-Loftus (Ind).

Sixteen local election candidates are battling it out in the Ashbourne area with just six seats up for grabs when voters take to the polls this Friday.

The municipal district includes areas like Stamullen, Gormanston, Skyrne, Kentstown and Tara.

The town of Ashbourne has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years going from a small village of 400 in 1970 to developing into Meath's second largest town after Navan now boasting a population of 15,680 and trebling its population since 1996, according to figures published in the last census.

Issues for the electoral in this area include housing, public amenities, green space, roadworks, water disruption, public transport and soaring rents.

Traffic disruption in the town as a result of ongoing roadworks has caused chaos for motorists and business owners alike in recent months who say it's killing trade in the town.

Work on The R135 Cycle Network Scheme commenced in April 2022 and was due to last 65 weeks is almost a year behind schedule and is resulting in major disruption.

Water outages are also causing strife for locals with a number of businesses being forced to close their doors on an ongoing basis due to the disruption.

Over development without proper infrastructure going hand in hand has been a major problem for the area. The issue came to a head last year when residents in Millbourne fighting to save their only green space won a high court case stopping the development of 30 apartments on land near their estate.

In 2021 An Bord Pleanála granted permission for 30 apartments on the only green space in Millbourne estate in Ashbourne. The decision followed many prior rejections and protests from locals.

Following public pressure the land was rezoned to public open space, however, planning permission for the three apartment blocks was granted under a previous county development plan meaning that decision still stood unless a judicial review initiated by the estate was successful.

Locals concerns included road traffic safety and a lack of affordable houses in the area.

Ashbourne auctioneer Conor Tormey is hoping to retain his seat having returned as a member of Meath County Council in 2018 after a 14-year absence. The councillor was formally co-opted to the 40-member council to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Cllr Sean Smith who emigrated with his family to the United States. He had previously been a councillor from 1999 to 2004 and was Cathaoirleach in 2001.

Joe Bonner has completed his fourth term as a councillor. In 2019 Joe Bonner topped the poll with 2,140 first preferences with a surplus of 738. He was first elected to Meath County Council in 2004 as an independent councillor.

One candidate is running in two local electoral areas. Jean Murray, a housewife from Ratoath is standing as a National Party candidate in both the Ashbourne and Ratoath areas.

A similar situation occurred in 2019 when Independent candidate, Sharon Keogan ran in both the Laytown/Bettystown and Ashbourne electoral areas, winning a seat in both. Keogan nominated Amanda Smith to take the seat she won in Ashbourne. Smith is hoping to retain that seat this time around.

Last week Jean Murray reported that all of her election posters in the two towns were removed just one week after they were installed.

A group of anonymous individuals have taken responsibility for the act, and have further defaced public property around Ratoath with anti-National Party graffiti.

Sitting councillors Suzanne Jamal and Alan Tobin are also hoping to retain their seats in the Ashbourne Municipal District. Cllr Jamal, who is from Balrath, was first elected to Meath Co Council in 2009, having previously been a member of Navan Town Council, while Cllr Alan Tobin, from Ashbourne, was first elected in 2014.

Sinn Fein is putting forward sitting councillor, Helen Meyer in the Ashbourne Municipal District.

Cllr Meyer has been a busy councillor since her co-option earlier this year to replace Cllr Aisling O'Neill who stepped down due to work commitments. Cllr O' Neill had also been co opted - in 2020 following the election of former Cllr Darren O'Rourke to Dail Eireann. The party has confirmed that they will be adding another candidate to the ticket in the coming months.

Two former councillors will be looking to take seats in the Ashbourne area. Charles Bobbett, who is running as an Independent candidate this year, was a Fine Gael councillor in what was then the Dunshaughlin electoral area from 2004 to 2009, when he lost his seat.

Maria Ui Ruairc was a Sinn Fein councillor for the Ratoath area from 2014 to 2019, but lost her seat in 2019. She will be contesting the Ashbourne electoral area this time.

Sitting independent Cllr Amanda Smith is hoping to hang on to her seat having been co-opted onto the council In 2019. Independent candidate, Sharon Keogan ran in both the Laytown/Bettystown and Ashbourne electoral areas, winning a seat in both.

Keogan nominated Amanda Smith to take the seat she won in Ashbourne. Keogan then stepped down from the council in 2020 when she was elected to the Seanad.

A lack of infrastructure is a running theme through the Ashbourne municipal district area.

Lisa Mellor, a member of the Stamullen Needs a Playground Committee says more needs to be done to rezone land for public amenities.

Meath Co Council has acquired a site on the outskirts of Stamullen where plans are in place to build a playground and also a much needed new burial ground to serve the area.

Plans went on public display last year as part of the 'Part Eight' planning process for local authority projects. Locals have been campaigning for a playground for the past decade and attempts up to this to find a suitable site proved fruitless until recently.

Lisa who was a Fianna Fail local election candidate for the Ashbourne area in 2019 resigned from the party the same year after her 12 Fianna Fáil colleagues voted against her in favour of Amanda Smith who had been nominated by Cllr Sharon Keogan to fill the vacant seat in the Ashbourne.

At the time Mellor said she felt "betrayed" by the party.

Despite having left politics behind, she is still as passionate as ever about community issues.

"There were only a few hundred people here living here when we moved here 26 years ago, now there is 6,000," said Lisa. The facilities did not come along side the increased population," she added.

"The football club are trying everything they can to get land. We also tried to get some kind of venue for a youth club but we are just coming up against a brick wall.

"These were the kinds of things I was hearing on the doorsteps when I was canvassing in 2019 and they are still not done five years later which is frustrating." A proposal from Drogheda Port and Ronan Group to build a multi-billion euro deep water port at Gormanston Beach will have "catastrophic implications" to its ecology, archaeology and surrounding areas according to a local community group. "I don't think people fully appreciate that a port on the scale that is planned would quite literally transform the area from a sleepy village to a port with that goes with that in terms of warehousing, traffic, pollution etc," said Peter Brady, Chairperson of Gormanston Community Association.

Peter says that being geographically the furthest from Ashbourne and Meath County Council headquarters in Navan leave locals feeling like Gormanston is the "forgotten village. We have a nursing home here and for the last ten years we have been pleading with Meath County Council and with Bus Eireann to put in bus stops outside. There is also no public lighting at the R132 and the Delvin Road junction at the nursing home.

"We have made representations high up and low down in government and there is no traction whatsoever. Basic infrastructure is not being provided and we always ask the question why?"