Kilbride - new Meath town without transport links?

Navan Junction

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the plans for Kilbride as a new Meath town?

It is way off the beaten track and doesn't even have a real village per se.

Victor

Got any references at all?

europerson

That's old news. It's not going to happen.

Irish Independent, June 22, 2000 wrote:

Minister calls halt to Bailey brothers' £100m town plan

THE Government has moved to block a major new town planned for the Dublin/Meath border which would have netted over £100m for the Bailey brothers Tom and Michael, the Irish Independent has learned.

The Department of the Environment, at the direction of Environment Minister Noel Dempsey, has told Meath County Council it must drop its plan to turn the tiny village of Kilbride, Co Meath, into a town.

Serious concerns over zoning and conflict with the Government's new Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area are among a raft of reasons cited for the dramatic move, it has been learned.

The Bailey brothers' Bovale company bought 350 acres near Kilbride two years ago for £6m but stood to make £100m if the draft plan was accepted and the area given town status.

Kilbride is less than a kilometre from the Dublin border and the plan would have seen its population rocket from 100 to 5000.

The Kilbride proposal was one of several in the council's draft development plan already gone on public display.

The Irish Independent has learned that the Department has told Meath County Council it is seriously concerned about the objective in the plan relating to the development of the new town.

It said the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin area promoted restraint on the expansion of the existing South Meath towns, allowing mainly for organic growth.

Growth was to be concentrated at identified development centres in the hinterland area, such as Navan, which would develop as self sufficient towns with housing development matched by a corresponding growth in employment and services.

Outside these areas growth was aimed at meeting local, rather than regional needs.

The Department told the council the Kilbride objective to locate a new town for 5,000 people was in conflict with these aims.

It also concluded the town plan for residential, industrial , commercial and community facilities was contrary to a key provision in the council's draft plan.

This said that south Meath towns had limited lands or limitations on the type of industry that could locate there because of sanitary services constraints.

Apart from Dunboyne and Kilcock, servicing constraints for water and sewerage were severe.

The council in its plan identified 33 towns as part of a major settlement strategy yet Kilbride, which was earmarked to grow to 5,000, did not appear in the plan as one of the centres.

Kilbride was also listed in the council's draft plan as a "dry graig'', a small settlement where pipe sewerage facilities will be difficult to provide.

The Department decided that locating a town there conflicted with the entire basis of this sustainable rural settlement strategy to encourage applicants who are local to a rural area to locate in a wide range of these "graigs'' provided in the plan.

By TREACY HOGAN Environment Correspondent

Navan Junction

I thought that, but I got an email last week about it..

I was wondering if it was still smoldering away - I haven't checked the development plan yet

Victor

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2000/07/02/story489524038.asp
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=225974&issue_id=2422