The Central Access Scheme is to cost significantly less than what was originally planned in the current economic climate according to director of services John Mulholland who was speaking on the current status of the plan at this month’s meeting of Kilkenny County Council.
The controversial scheme which involves a new access road through the current Diageo brewery site, traversing the Nore and linking with the Mart site and the Castlecomer Road and includes a pedestrianised bridge, is to cost the council in the region of €9.7 million which is considerably less than what had first been mooted.
This week, Mr Mulholland told the members that the plans are still with An Bord Pleanala. The local authorities were forced to return to the drawing board following An Bord Pleanala’s report into the original scheme, which addressed heritage and traffic mobility concerns.
Following an oral hearing in Kilkenny in December 2008, the An Bord Pleanala report found the design should make greater provision for public transport, cyclists and pedestrians, there should be stronger emphasis on mobility management, better integration between the new street and the existing network and a maximisation of integration between the city’s historic cathedral quarter and its commercial core.
This week Mr Mulholland said he was confident that the new plans offered increased public transport and cyclist options and he said that the benefits of the scheme are now stronger than ever with the costs having been reduced substantially.
Most of the members are satisfied with the scheme however, Green Party Cllr Malcolm Noonan once again voiced his opinion against the scheme, which he says is still too dear.
“€1.2 million will come from development levies to support this scheme whose benefits are limited if there are any at all.
“I’ll be lodging a formal objection to the scheme as I believe it has no function or purpose anymore in modern day planning - it was of its time in the 1980s,“ he said.
