I own Woodbine Books on Lower Main Street so this development directly affects my business. I am generally in favour of the proposed development of Market Square.  It will vastly improve the appearance of this part of the town and make it much safer and more attractive.  The pedestrian crossings are a particularly welcome addition, as are the new paths and the disabled parking bay.

However, I believe that several areas have not been fully considered and would merit further consideration and discussion with local businesses and residents.  Most of these relate to parking and the reduction in available parking spaces.  While I understand the need for this, I feel that the involvement of local residents and business owners at the planning stage may have resulted in a better outcome for everyone.

1.  An assumption seems to have been made that everyone who works in or avails of town facilities lives in the town but this is not the case. It is very short-sighted to ignore the fact that many users of the town travel from surrounding areas.  I have customers who travel regularly from Carlow, Athy, Castledermot and further afield. These people would reasonably expect to stay in the town and visit other businesses while here but reducing the number of parking spaces available will not encourage this. Who is expected to use the new and upgraded facilities, in particular the Market Square?  If the plan is to attract tourists, cutting the number of parking spaces available in the town is not going help, particularly considering the lack of public transport options.

2.  The parking survey notes that a large percentage of cars park in the area for more than two hours and that a two hour limit should be enforced.  No investigation has been carried out to discover the reasons for long term parking in the area, although it comments that these are most likely employees in local businesses and local residents.  The removal of parking without addressing the reasons for long term parking will not resolve the issue. 

One of the causes is that Kildare County Council have allowed apartments to be built and commercial premises to be converted to residential properties with inadequate parking provisions, forcing residents to use on-street parking. 

For employees of local businesses who do not live in Kilcullen, public transport is inadequate or non-existent so they have to drive to work.  There is no cycling infrastructure so this is not a viable alternative. 

3.  Parking in the area (and particularly along Bentley’s Lane) is chaotic at best at the moment and is getting worse.  Double yellow lines are ignored by drivers and are not enforced.  Cars regularly park in dangerous locations at the junction making it almost impossible to turn safely from Bentley’s Lane onto Lower Main Street.  Removing available parking with no enforcement of parking regulations will only make this worse.  For example, I regularly have to ask drivers to move their vehicles as they park in front of the entrance to my bookshop during opening hours.  I have photographic examples of dangerous parking which I can make available to KCC if necessary.

A consequence of enforcing these parking regulations will be a decrease in the number of drivers stopping on impulse to use local businesses.  This is already happening – my customers regularly comment about how difficult it is to park on this side of the town.  This could have the unintended consequence of driving customers away from local businesses. 

4.  In the drawings (specifically 1091-L-100-P10_LandscapeLayout.pdf) there are no double yellow lines from the entrance to Millrace car park to the end of Millrace (on Lower Main Street, opposite Woodbine Books) – are these being removed? If so, parked cars, coupled with the new path on the other side of the road, will cause the road to be very narrow at this point and it will also cause issues for people exiting Millrace by car.

5.  There is no provision for a loading bay in the redevelopment.  There are at least ten businesses in this area who get regular deliveries, most causing traffic disruption as there are very few places for delivery vehicles to park safely.

6.  The number of Kilsaran HGVs using the town as a through route has noticeably increased over the past two years, as has the speed they travel at.  I think that this part of the survey should be revisited.  Overall, traffic driving  through the town (particularly down the hill from the Naas side) travels far too fast and mitigations should be put in place to address and enforce this.

7.  Air quality was not measured as part of the submission.  The number of Kilsaran HGVs travelling through the town make it unpleasant to walk along the main street and unsafe to cycle.  This factor should have been considered when so much of this submission revolves around encouraging people to spend time outdoors in the Market Square.

I am happy to discuss these issues in more detail if required.  It is in all our interests for the Market Square development to be a success and this is more likely to happen when all community members have an active role in the process.