This morning I attended the Maynooth Area Municipal District meeting in Kildare County Council. I went with the aim of observing the level of rural interests represented at the meeting. The district contains the towns of Clane, Kilcock and Maynooth and a majority of the councillors live in Maynooth. The kind of issues that were raised by the councillors are contained in the Agenda and Progress Report attached.
I found that Cllr. Brendan Weld covered the western side of the district very well. He was on top of many of the issues relating to the rural areas. Maynooth however, with a population of over 14,500, dominated the meeting as one would expect. Indeed, the people of Maynooth are looking for upgrades to their existing playground, when most villages in the rest of the district don’t even have a playground yet.
I believe that the changes proposed by the boundary commission make a lot of sense. The commission recommended that a new Local Electoral Area be formed for Clane, Prosperous and the rural areas to the west of these towns. Although this LEA is combined with the Maynooth LEA to make the Municipal District, it will ensure that the smaller villages in West Kildare have a better chance of representation at the Municipal District meetings.
