KILDARE: New link between Naas and Newbridge

Kildare County Council (KCC) provided an update upon the request of a Social Democrats councillor relating to the Newbridge-Naas Inter Urban Scheme.

Cllr Chris Pender made the request at the latest Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District meeting, which was held on Wednesday, July 19 last at the MERITS building in Naas.

He motioned for KCC to provide an update on the Scheme, 'including funding secured, funding sought and funding they are aware of.'

Cllr Pender’s motion was seconded by Fianna Fáil Cllr Suzanne Doyle.

In its report, KCC noted the following: "An allocation of €100,000 was provided by the National Transport Authority (NTA) to develop the option selection and preliminary design elements of this Scheme.

"In early 2023, the NTA amended their requirements for all projects to include the provision of a rapid build/cost effective option report and this has been provided to the NTA for comment."

Cllr Chris Pender

KCC continued: "Approval of this report is necessary before proceeding further with the design work.

"The next step for the Scheme would be to develop a preliminary design for the Scheme to present as part of a statutory public consultation process. Decisions on the allocation of funding in 2024 will not be made by the NTA for some time.

"However, the Scheme remains on the County Council’s work programme."

KCC added that although separate sources of funding can be examined, it said that it is unlikely that the scheme can be delivered outside the NTA Active Travel Funding Programme.

In response to the report, Cllr Pender said: "It is encouraging to see the allocation that was made.

"It’s disappointing to see the way the NTA are behaving like this, though," he added.