I strongly object to the inclusion of The Gallops Avenue as a priority road project in this Development Plan (Project Nr. 1, Table 5.4), (Chapter 5).
The current sitting Naas Municipal District Council has already voted in June 2019 on a Part 8 proposal for a road on this route, then called the Naas Inner Relief Road, and decided not to proceed with its development. The reasons cited for the decision not to proceed included the length of time the proposal had been in existence (since 1992, now 30 years), and that it was not right for Naas.
The route was then re-introduced a short time later, but re-named to its current name of The Gallops Avenue in the Naas-Sallins Transport Strategy in 2020.
It is completely unacceptable that Kildare Co. Co. have chosen to ignore the decision democratically taken by the elected Naas Municipal District Council by re-naming and re-introducing this route after its rejection in 2019, and to continue to push it in subsequent plans.
The majority of public submissions made to the different stages of the Public Consultations on the Naas-Sallins Transport Strategy, the Naas LAP and the County Development Plan Issues Paper demonstrate the public’s consistent and continued opposition and objection to this proposed route.
The optimal alternative to facilitate the town’s longer term sustainable growth needs, to resolve the traffic issues and to allow the town and environs to develop in an orderly way, is that an Outer Relief road should be developed, routing traffic away from existing dense residential areas. Such a route should be located to the east of the Racecourse, connecting at the Maudlins Roundabout, the smaller roundabout between the Maudlins Roundabout and Johnstown village, or at Junction 8 on the N7, noting that this draft, and previous County Development Plans, seek to have Junction 8 preserved ‘for the provision of future access to Naas’ (Objective TMO83).