As a resident in this county who votes in this constituency, I wish to make a submission on the above county development plan.
I object to the inclusion of ‘The Gallops Avenue’ in this plan (Chapter 5 and Table 5.4 - Priority Road and Bridge Projects). This road proposal will not address the transport and movement needs of the county and our county deserves better. Furthermore, it does not have the support of the majority of Naas residents as evidenced by the many thousand submissions over the years to the various Local Area Plans, Transport Strategy etc. This road proposal was democratically defeated in 2019 by Naas councillors (6:1 votes) who are on the record in Naas MD Council minutes as stating this road proposal is outdated and not fit for purpose. It is entirely unacceptable to disregard this democratic decision and continue to attempt to include it county development plans, The proposed Gallops Ave road must be deleted from the county development plan.
Also by way of comment, it is relevant to highlight the irony in the marketing/ branding associated with this Kildare CDP 2023-2029 'Our Kildare, Our Plan'. I have reviewed all of the submissions made over recent consultations on:
1.the Proposed Material Alterations to the Draft Naas Local Area Plan
2. the Draft Naas Local Area Plan
3.the Issues Paper for the Pre-draft Stage of Kildare County Development Plan
4.Naas and Sallins Transport Strategy
Within ALL of these consultations is a consistent overwhelming message from Naas residents that any inclusion of any proposal of the Gallops Ave/NIRR is wholly against the want and wishes of Naas residents. This is clearly evidenced by the repeated high numbers of submissions registering objections to this road - a tally in the thousands now. If the CDP really is 'our plan', then it would do well to incorporate 'our' views and wants on our county.