Access needed to Celbridge public land says councillor

Kildare County Council has been urged to work towards getting  access to free public land along the Liffey river close to Celbridge village.

But it looks as if it will be talking to NAMA about that.

At the recent meeting of the council’s Celbridge-Leixlip Municipal District, Cllr Ciara Galvin asked that the council engage with the relevant authority with the intention of securing an  access route from the Dublin Road to the Kildare County Council owned lands along  the banks of the Liffey at Donaghacumper in Celbridge. 

In a brief reply, the members were told that “this will be discussed with the Council’s Forward Planning Section to investigate the  issue of access to the lands.” 

The land in question runs along the Liffey river from the Abbey pub on the bridge towards Castletown.

Cllr Galvin said she believes the council will now need to talk to NAMA about getting access.

She told us that she was initially under the impression that the land had yet to be gifted to the council.

It was to be passed over to public ownership in connection with a former major retail and housing application on the Donaghcumper lands.

Permission was not granted but the land was transferred to Kildare County Council, she said.

There was also a previous plan to build a bridge across the Liffey beside the Slip Hall at Castletown House and Demesne Gates as part of plans for Donaghcumper demesne.

There was major opposition to the building and construction on the land from sections of the public but some council officials pushed for retail buildings on the land close to the bridge.

The bridge plan, which would have been one option for getting access to the now publicly owned land, never came into being.

“It would be great to open it up,” said Cllr Galvin. “There are a lot of potential uses, including forestry,” she said.

Cllr Galvin said she believed that part of a reason the gifted land has been landlocked was because it was owned by a developer.

She said  she learned two months ago that the land around it was now owned by NAMA and she has been told  the council will be talking to NAMA about getting access to the landlocked public land.

It is understood that the council are to meet NAMA in connection with another piece of land, which lies behind Donaghcumper cemetery and is the site for two planned new schools, including Celbridge Community School and that issue of the Donaghcumper land will be raised then.