BREAKING: New planning application is made to develop a private cemetery in County Kildare

Kildare County Council has received a repeat application to develop a privately operated century between Sallins and Clane.

It comes from Amendoeira Developments Limited for a cemetery comprising a total of 1,448 plots, 30 car parking spaces, overflow parking area (with gates), new vehicular entrance with gate and wing walls.

A similar application from the same company was lodged with KCC in November 2017 and was approved the following year.

Subsequently KCC acceded to a request to extend the permission for a year.

The original application also sought permission for 30 car park spaces, an overflow parking area with gates, a new entrance for vehicles, a maintenance yard, on a 3.75 acre site.

According to that application the company had an address at Weir House in Clane and its directors were listed as Judy McCarthy and Seamus McCarthy.

A document submitted as part of the application points out  that the land is currently zoned for agricultural use.

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It further points out that the local authority has an obligation to acquire or extend burial grounds as necessary and to acquire new lands for this purpose.

It also points out that the existing burial ground at Bodenstown is “noticeably small and, even so, the number of plots proposed is smaller than at burial grounds approved at other locations in Ireland, all of which were approved.”

It is planned that the proposed cemetery will be privately run and will be multi denominational.

According to the developer a company will be specifically established to manage the day-to-day running of the graveyard.

An annual maintenance fee will be required which will provide a legal contract between the company and the customer.

This fee will cover grave opening, foundation and headstone, grave maintenance and maintaining a purchased register of interments.

It is proposed to provide an internal pedestrian link between the  proposed new cemetery and Bodenstown graveyard.

The  overflow car parking area is only expected to be used during the three Sundays in June when large numbers visit the area for political party commemorations at the grave of Wolfe Tone.

It says there is minimal adverse impact on local ecology and no obvious risk to subsurface archeology.

The adjacent Bodenstown Cemetery, which served the community in Sallins andi the burial place of revolutionary Wolfe Tone, is almost full.