Councils lay groundwork for Kilcloon to Maynooth road

The need for the building of a new road from the Kilcloon Road in Co Meath to Maynooth comprised the main theme of a special meeting of Meath Co Council this week to consider the Maynooth and Environs Joint Area Plan 2025-2031.

The two councils have joined up in preparing the plan, part of which covers 250 acres in Co Meath and the remainder in Co Kildare.

The Joint Local Area Plan incorporates a framework for guiding the future development of transportation, housing, retail and social and community infrastructure.

The plan went through at a Meath Co Council meeting chaired by Cathaoirleach Cllr Sharon Tolan on Monday this week by a 19-1 majority, with 20 councillors absent. The material alterations will go on public display from 11th November to 9th December. Eighteen months work went into the preparation of the plan.

The chief executive of Meath County Council Kieran Kehoe recommended that material alterations be made to the draft plan and that these alterations be put on public display. The draft plan had been on public display in June for a period of six weeks to meet statutory requirements.

The CE had prepared a report on all the submissions and observations made to the council. Over 300 people attended a meeting on the proposed plan last July when they meet with staff from the two councils. Six hundred users and stakeholders registered on the public consultation website and 1,311 submissions and observations were made to the draft plan.

Movement and active travel received 1,197 submissions while “implementation” received 948 submissions.

The main theme in one section of the draft plan centred on”permeability” which included new openings between existing residential developments and proposed new residential developments.

Opening a debate on the chief executive’s report Independent Cllr Brian Fitzgerald said that the area plan was critical from a Meath perspective. Meath had a very limited part in the metropolitan Dublin area. The council had tried to get Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath into that area but had been unsuccessful so far.

The land in question in the area plan had been in the metropolitan area and had been talked about for many years and efforts had been made over time to get a new link road from Kilcloon Road into Maynooth. The regional assembly had marked out this road as a critical piece of infrastructure and this had been accepted by the Government, and the two county councils.

“It is critical that we get this road constructed because what this road is going to do is to make it very easy for people to either cycle or walk to Maynooth which is a couple of kilometres away once this road is set up”.

Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O’Connor said the plan was something which had been the topic of discussion at Ratoath Municipal District for quite some time.

The road was critical for an area of the MD, Moyglare and Moyaddy. It also opened up the opportunity for economic development, in particular the development of housing. Cllr Fitzgerald proposed and Cllr O’Connor seconded the proposal to accept the chief executive’s report.