Athy Rose Again

Athy can once again feel very proud of the calibre of its contestants in the International Rose of Tralee competition. Congratulations to Clare Kambamettu who portrayed herself, her family, her town and her county so well. A very competent replacement for Charmaine Kenny who brought the role of Rose to new heights.

Rarely could a town be as fortunate as Athy to have its talented young ladies recognised on the international stage. Charmaine has used the opportunity to bring credit to us all by highlighting social injustice and raising the spirits of all sections of society.

This is a significant year for Athy which has been chosen as Ireland’s first SHINE town and having the Rose title coming from here will add to the tourist and business potential which it can unleash.

Just like the ploughing Championship when Athy gets an opportunity it never lets it go!

Athy can feel very proud to have reclaimed the title of Rose of Tralee and congratulations to Clare Kambamettu who excelled in her presentation. We look forward to seeing her represent us all over the coming year.

New construction in Athy Square is an act of corporate vandalism – Daly

The erection of a CCTV mast in Athy’s heritage Emily square is nothing short of vandalism to our town according to Cllr Richard Daly of Athy.

“Without notice or consultation with residents of public representatives Kildare County Council allowed the erection of a totally inappropriate post/pillar/standard in our heritage square. The construction is distasteful and clashes with the tree lined, cobbled square.

I have tabled motions with both Kildare and Athy councils for the immediate removal of the pole which is seen by the local community as a very high handed intrusion into the town. As our tourist season begins with several major festivals being held this year this latest addition to our square shows in how little regard we hold our heritage status.

I have received several calls from people who are extremely annoyed at the disrespect show to our community and it becomes embarrassing for local representatives to be associated with such vandalism to our town by the very people who should be promoting it.”

Campaign for Southern Road to Escalate in Athy – Daly

As congested traffic becomes a regular feature of Athy, Cllr Richard Daly says that now is the time to escalate the campaign for funding for the Southern Distributor Road.

“For decades there has been division in Athy over the route of the road but for the past number of years consensus has been reached and all of the preliminary and environmental work has been completed. Now funding is the only issue which remains unresolved. In the records of the Dail, in response to a question by Dep Jack Wall, Minister Dempsey replied :

“My Department received an application from Kildare County Council in November 2008 for 100% funding of the Athy Southern Distributor Road at an estimated cost of €42 million. In order to increase the monies available for the maintenance and rehabilitation of road pavements, arising from the severe weather as mentioned earlier, it has been necessary to reduce the grant allocations for major new road schemes and for major realignment schemes. As a result of this, no funding is being provided for this project in 2010.”

This means that over the next year no further work will take place on the Athy Southern Distributor Road and this is unacceptable for a population who have a large number of commuters and a through traffic which chokes the single route in the town almost daily.

I am not prepared to let the next seven months pass by without organising a response to Minister Dempsey’s response and will be highlighting the issue throughout the town over the coming weeks.”

“Attached please find photos taken on the proposed route of the Athy Southern Distributor Road”

Daly again raises the issue of Southern Distributor Road at Kildare County Council

Speaking at the April meeting of Kildare County Council Cllr Richard Daly again raised the issue of the urgent need for construction of the Southern Distributor Road around Athy.

“I was disappointed to see the massive reduction in the funding for the overall roads programme for Kildare for 2010 but most particularly that there was no reference to the Southern Distributor Road which is an identified priority of the County Council. While some reduction in funding can be accounted for by the fact that some major roads projects have just been completed the fact that the Southern Distributor route is still not a project which has received funding is a huge disappointment to all of the local representatives and the community at large.

The Southern Distributor Road has been identified as Kildare’s number one priority and I used to opportunity to remind council officials of that fact. Athy needs this piece of infrastructure to develop and there is unanimous support for the project. It is important now that the link road has been completed that the Southern route goes to construction stage.

I will continue to use every opportunity to highlight the need for this road”

Time for Kildare to start talking Rubbish – Daly

Around the county the amount of litter being dumped illegally is a blight on our community and our business potential according to Athy’s FG Cllr Richard Daly.

From the N7 and N9 to the Grand Canal Kildare’s litter situation is becoming chronic as the summer and the tourist season begins. Black plastic bags float on our canals and lie on the banks of our rivers. Our forests and our bogs have become the final resting place for fridges and mattresses and soiled nappies are being shredded by nightime predators in the wild.

Yes, there are many of us who have expressed the opinion that waivers for refuse collection should be nationally available for social welfare and low income families but this in no way excuses the level of refuse dumping from whatever socio economic group is responsible.

Our Civic Amenity centres freely accept electrical goods so there is no excuse for the dumping of the cookers, fridges, TVs, etc wantonly in the environment. Recyclable material can also be freely disposed of at these locations. An information campaign on times of opening and cost of disposal could indeed be of benefit.

Hundreds of thousands of euro are being wasted by local authorities trying to combat the fly tipping on a daily basis and this is taxpayers money which could be used more beneficially at a time of shortage. This littering is costing us money and it is also acting as a deterrent to those who might be attracted to visit our potentially beautiful county as tourists or even locate here.

Very very stiff penalties need to be imposed on the perpetrators of this illegal dumping. These are not just unhygienic and mean people but they are also damaging our economic progress. At the very time when we need to work together to stimulate economic recovery we are being let down by those who are turning our county into a rubbish tip