KILDARE: No fixed date for opening of new public park near Naas

The main construction works on the new public park for Naas are expected to finish by the end of March.

There will however be time required to rectify snags and allow for the landscaping to establish and mature, all of this will be weather dependent. 

A Naas Municipal District meeting heard that this means there is as yet no  no confirmed date for the park to open - but at this stage it is expected to be in the final quarter of this year.

The Kerdiffstown landfill remediation project as it’s known, embraces an ongoing multi million euro clean up of a major dump site - which required European expertise to bring an internal fire under control. And came after the surrounding area was enveloped in a noxious odour for weeks.

The 75 acre site  was once among the most controversial dumps in the country. 

In January 2011 a series of fires began to burn deep within mounds of waste and site emitted noxious odours as well as plumes of white smoke.

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Some 3.1 million cubic metres of waste was dumped there - enough to fill Aras Chill Dara 70 times.

It was eventually closed by a court order and it emerged during the court hearing that Neiphin Trading Limited, the company which operated the site was in financial difficulty.

Since then a huge clean-up operation has been underway as a prelude to the development of an outdoor recreation centre.

It’s not known how much the project will cost  but a previous estimate placed it at between €30-€40m on top of the costs associated with the clean up operation.