At the public meeting I hosted in order to get the Allenwood Playground project moving again, I presented some statistics regarding the availability of playgrounds to the communities of North West Kildare. These figures are available in the presentation at Allenwood Playground Public Meeting.
Today, I am providing a map showing all existing playgrounds and those in some state of progress, in County Kildare. The blue markers indicate existing playgrounds and the green indicate those that are in progress. I compiled this information through my own research in the absence of any official source of this information and I stand to be corrected if anyone has more up to date information.
It is striking that, apart from the playground in Timahoe, there are no other playgrounds in a large area of North West Kildare. In my opinion, the communities of Carbury, Derrinturn and Ticknevin should be seeking a playground for those villages. Johnstownbridge, with several young families in the estates in the village itself and many more on the outskirts and surrounding villages, should also be looking at possible locations for a playground. I am happy to assist residents from either area with getting these projects started and moving them onto the list of playgrounds being worked on by the council.
I wrote about the current status of the Allenwood playground project in Architect selected for Allenwood Playground. The architect provided some draft plans and Kildare County Council have asked for further revisions to this. The council are also currently arranging to have some survey work done on the site and have obtained permission from ACDAL to do this.
Council Planning (Part 8) has been approved for the Town Park and Playground in Prosperous and it was the plan in February 2018 to have the park completed by the autumn of 2018. In June, it was decided that substantial drainage works would be needed in Prosperous village in order to alleviate flooding issues in the village, including on the proposed location for the park and playground. This means that work on the park must be delayed until 2019. In response to a query by Cllr. Brendan Weld in the September Municipal District meeting, which I attended, the council expect that works will now commence in Quarter 2, 2019.
