"I haven't met a single person in Sallins who thinks light industry is appropriate." There appears to be plenty of weight being thrown behind that claim from Sallins Community Council Chairperson Fergus Carpenter after around 150 people showed up to the Kildare County Council offices in Naas today armed with petitions against the plans outlined for 70 acres of land in the Sallins area.
The dispute has been going on for a number of years now after land was made available to the community by the McCarthy family. The initial plans sought to develop recreational facilities on 37 acres of that land, while 30 acres was to be designated towards residential use and three acres was marked out to build a school.
The council have indicated that they plan to develop light industry on the land however, meaning the local GAA and soccer clubs would lose out on the chance to build new pitches on the grounds, while Mr Carpenter also insisted that nobody in the community is interested in seeing light industry come to the area.
168 submissions were made from people in favour of allocating the land to open space and amenities. Just one person went against that idea.
"This would be the biggest community development project in terms of social infrastructure, sports infrastructure, we'd have a small park. We could have a playground if necessary. We could have all the things that we currently don't have," said Mr Carpenter.
Around 100 kids from the local area showed up at the Kildare County Council offices in Naas this afternoon that outlines their need for the land to be given to their GAA club and the soccer club. Sallins GAA club has just one pitch and there are around 40 different teams currently in the club. Obviously there is no way one single pitch can cater for so many teams, meaning some teams have to train elsewhere in conditions hardly befitting of a GAA ground.
Children from Sallins GAA Club and Sallins Celtic Soccer Club presenting petitions in support of the Clane Road Community Development at Kildare County Council offices
"At the moment the GAA club can't cope with the numbers. I have to drive my kids up to training in the Millennium Park, 15 minutes in the car even though I live around the corner from the GAA grounds. I have to hop in my car and bring them up to the Millennium Park to a field to train," explained Mr Carpenter.
"The soccer club is in a worse state. They're renting some space from a developer, so when he decides to build, which will probably be quite soon, they become homeless. The soccer club don't have their own land. This obviously would give them a golden opportunity to own their own grounds and they can apply for grants. You can't apply for grants until you actually own your own grounds."
The matter is going higher up the food chain than Kildare County Council, and it is likely that an independent arbitrator will be appointed to make a final decision on the matter.
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