Calls for €400,000 to be placed into Kildare road project

A number of councillors want €400,000 to be released by Kildare County Council (KCC) and placed into a road development project.

The proposition was heard at the latest Clane-Maynooth Municipal District (MD) meeting, which was held on Thursday, April 6.

Cllrs Tim Durkan (Fine Gael), Angela Feeney (Labour), Peter Hamilton (Green Party) and Naoise Ó Cearúil (Fianna Fáil) called for KCC to release €400,000 from the accumulated paid parking fund in Maynooth, in order to bring the Celbridge Road upgrade project through its part 8 and the detailed design stages of the planning process.

KCC said in response that its Financial Management System confirmed that the sum of €704,517 was set aside from car parking surplus funds ring-fenced in the MD.

The council said: "The funding has been allocated for the delivery of the Maynooth Town Masterplan which includes the Harbourfield area.

"In applying for Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) grant funding the estimated value of the project was €2,545,000, of which 75 per cent would be funded through URDF and 25 per cent funded by the council."

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KCC continued: "The 25 per cent element of €636,250 has been raised by setting aside the funds which was confirmed with the elected members at a previous MD meeting.

"A revised business case has been submitted (to the relevant department) which involved a review of the costs given the inflationary environment that exists.

"The costs have been revised upwards, increasing the 25 per cent match funding element to €858,125 (ex VAT) identifying a shortfall in the match funding currently allocated to this project."

KCC concluded: "In this regard, extracting €400,000 from this project to allocate to the Celbridge Road project would be detrimental to the Maynooth Town Centre Masterplan and Harbourfield development."

Despite KCC’s stance, the councillors in attendance agreed to postpone the motion to next month’s MD meeting, in order to 'get more accurate and final figures' relating to pay parking surpluses in Maynooth.