KILDARE: Service station group criticised over failure to develop Naas site

Service station company Applegreen has been accused of holding the Naas Tidy Towns group to ransom.

The claim was made over the company’s failure to develop a new service station - which would have provided a reported 400 jobs - at the former cement factory site on the Dublin side of Naas.

Planning permission for the development was granted in 2016 by Kildare County Council.

When this happened the council said development levies would amount to €760,000, though it’s not clear if this was the reason for the failure to build the station.

Applegreen subsequently lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála and this was subsequently withdrawn by the company.

Cllr Bill Clear said that Naas Tidy Towns should “down tools” because the appearance of the site (on the town’s most significant approach road) was a serious impediment to success in the tidy towns competition.

Cllr Clear also told a Naas Municipal District meeting that the number of homeless people living there is growing.

At the very least, he said, the company should secure the site.

“It is a major eyesore. We’ve become used to it because it’s there so long.”

But KCC official Eoghan Ryan said the company is “not holding anyone to ransom.”

He also said that the company is anxious to lodge a planning application - but a traffic management and access study needs to be undertaken before that.

Mr Ryan also said that this study is “very nearly completed.”

A company representative said Applegreen has no comment to make

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