Work on Navan's 'green lung' to start as final park obstacle removed

A major step in the delivery of the 66-acre Navan town park will be taken this week when the undergrounding of ESB power lines, which had run across the lands, will be completed on Friday. The power lines and pylons had presented a massive stumbling block to starting any landscaping work but, after months of work, the path is clear to start the development of the looped walkway and playing pitches. Welcoming the completion of this first element of work, Cllr Shane Cassells said he had fought for the last two years to ensure money secured from the Department of Sport would be spent on the park following attempts to shelve the project. "It has been a long battle since we secured the land to get to this point where we have the first element completed and the walkways and pitches are now ready to roll," he said. "It is great to think that we will have a huge open space in the middle of Navan - a green lung - for people to enjoy and bring their families to in the near future. The work on the ESB lines was obviously very tedious and took a long time since negotiations began, but with that out of the way, we can focus on the real aspects of the park." A total of €1m had been secured for the development of phase one of the new park, which was made up primarily of Department of Sport grant money along with some internal resources from Meath County Council. Located just beside the Silverlawn estate on the Rathaldron Road, the new park will be expected to be an amenity for the region rather than just the town. Tender documents for the work on a specially designed walkway from the Rathaldron Road to the river Blackwater, as well as a number of playing pitches, are now being finalised with work on these aspects expected to begin shortly and completed by the end of this year. Phase two will see the provision of formal gardens, an arboretum, skateboard park, bowling green and fishing platforms. The park has overcome several hurdles in recent years with an attempt to shelve the project made two years ago when it was claimed that there was a lack of funding to develop the park.