10.8.1 Children and Young People
Objective SC O26 to "Support the provision of multi-purpose sports (to include minority sports, and arts / drama activities) halls, outdoor playing pitches, all-weather playing pitches, swimming pools, and associated facilities in appropriate locations and to particularly encourage flexibility in the design of sports facilities in order to accommodate a range of sporting activities." should be more explicit regarding what is meant by "appropriate locations" and what support might be expected for the provision of swimming pools in North Kildare in light of the separate Objective SC O13 to "Progress plans for the provision of a regional swimming pool in North Kildare in conjunction with other relevant bodies."
The attached document illustrates the level of access to swimming pools for residents of the 100 largest towns in Ireland with Co. Kildare standing out as four of it's larger towns - Newbridge (no. 15), Celbridge (no. 21), Leixlip (no. 29) and Maynooth (no. 31) - all feature in the top 31 largest settlements without a public swimming pool. Of these four, only residents of Newbridge and Maynooth have leisure club pools for use by members. The only other town without a public swimming pool above Maynooth is Balbriggan at no. 17. The closure of the pool on the St John of God campus in Celbridge in March 2020 has been a major blow to families in Celbridge. Though dilapidated and limited in the services offered, many children used it for swimming lessons and have been unable to book into alternative classes anywhere else.
The demand for a swimming pool in Celbridge is significant and, if Kildare County Council is not going to be the one to provie this, then it has got to be made an attractive proposition for another organisation.
Lack of Family Resource Centre / Youth Services in Celbridge
A 2019 KWETB review of needs assessment and area profile in relation to youth services only reviewed towns that already had youth services. There needs to be a strategy for provision of youth services in large towns that lack them. The following table shows the 17 Kildare and Wicklow towns, 10 of which were included in the youth services needs assessment. Celbridge and Maynooth with the 21st largest and 31st largest populations in Ireland were ignored for this assessment.
Additionally, there is no Family Resource Centre in Celbridge or Maynooth. Objectives should be included to support redress of these deficits.