The refusal to grant planning permission to the Abbey development in Athy makes nonsense of local democracy as planners disregard the wishes of the people according to Athy’s Leas-Cathaoirleach and Fine Gael’s Cllr Richard Daly.
Cllr Daly says “Local authority members of all parties in Athy held wide consultation and spent months in deliberating over a Development Plan for the town which concentrated on the central development of the town initially with development moving outwards as soon as we had secured the commercial centre. Instead of aiding this decision officials and planners have directly contradicted the unanimous decision of the elected members in refusing planning permission for the “Abbey” site in the centre of the town.
This is the second town centre development where the councillors have been united in promoting the projects to facilitate a complete regeneration of our economic fortune. In the first instance planning was finally granted with so many conditions that it could not have been less helpful and now the second development has been turned down unreasonably.
Do the officials know that this is South Kildare where we have not had the same development as North Kildare and where we desperately need the involvement of developers who will invest in our town? Do the officials not know that we are in an economic downturn and that to still have development interest is a miracle? Do the planners not realise that the elected councillors all support town centre development and have done everything to ensure that these projects go ahead? Have the planners and officials read the Athy Town Development Plan of which they were a part of creating?
It is a sad day for democracy and for Athy when we can reject investment in our town. For so long we have bemoaned the fact that shoppers were going out of town for their products and when we have the opportunity of not one, but two retail developments in the town centre they are made impossible by the very people who should me moving mountains to facilitate them.
I do not believe that any sort of development should be allowed and that constructions must be in keeping with the local environment but what is happening is embarrassing and ridiculous. Ironically the latest refusal of permission comes from Athy Town Council whose elected members unanimously support the project!”
“Democracy is in question when the will of the people is overturned by a northern based bureaucracy which does not see the urgent need of retail and roads in the south of the county” concluded Cllr Daly
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