Dear Editor,
I am the chairman of a local handball club which has a membership of over 80 kids and 20 adults. The age range is from as young as six years to 60 plus, all still playing competitive handball.
I attended a meeting in the Fr McGrath centre Thursday November 27, a last ditch effort to decide if the proposed development of a community park and mini astroturf multi-purpose playing arena go ahead.
The site to be opened up is 4.8 acres and part of the conditions when land was purchased was a boundary wall was to be erected all around the site.
I was involved in all community meeting and was a part of a coalition committee set up to address the many issues that may arise.
Three obstacles for me arose in this development:
1. The security issue for the 19 houses adjacent to the new park, that a railing be erected to secure their premises. Achieved.
2. The astroturf pitch was going to be caged into the wall. You would enter the existing playground into the astroturf pitch, but you would not be able to access the rest of the 4.8 acre site because of the nine foot fence around the mini pitch, which would have being disastrous and created many other problems. Achieved.
3. Access route to development the site?
Back to the meeting:
They were members from all political parties attending the meeting to support and encourage the people of The Butts in their decision.
They were a good debate on the issue of access. Access, we are told, has to be through The Butts housing estate, up St Joseph’s Road and in through a little green pitch that’s right beside our playground.
For me, this I could never accept, to ask my neighbors allow heavy construction traffic up that road. And the development will take at least 14 weeks, not the six weeks we were led to believe. There are very young children living on that road. There are days you can see young kids dashing out their doors which are always open, and by the time they are coming out their gates they are in full flight. They’re halfway across the street before they begin to look up and down. We are reassured that the highest safety standards will be put in place. There is always the possibility of human error. If there is a ridiculous amounts of odds of anyone getting injured it is still a risk too high to take with The Butts’ most treasured asset, our children. That is my personal opinion.
What is outrageous about this decision is that there is an existing entrance to this site 500 meters up the Bonnettstown road in by the landowner’s farm.
When the landowner sold this site he requested that a boundary wall be built all around the site. This site was purchased around three years ago. And then less than two years ago the same grant for a mini astroturf pitch was giving to other side of town because The Butts has no space for it — why no fuss then?
Now we have the people of The Butts bombarded through local media with messages like children future in the balance, or a no vote on these issues was a vote against the park, and badly needed facilities for the local community and children of the area. Local people were unfairly (again in my opinion ) put under pressure to vote this in at any cost. It was voted through by the community and I must and do accept this vote, but surely it should have been local politicians who should have been bombarded with this issue to be resolved with the landowner to allow access, or more pressure put on the landowner from these politicians who attended our meeting.
Yet on the very night of this final meeting there were offers from them to approach the landowner, but then about five minutes later their theory was, if the council couldn’t do it we won’t be able to do it.
This park will be of benefit to everyone in Kilkenny but it seems The Butt’s people will be the people to suffer.
I know a large group of local people were put off coming to this meeting as their vote against the access route would be seen to be against the project, which would have been totally untrue. What people don’t realise that some of the people who voted against the access have worked harder than most people in the community trying to achieve this park. We have worked hard for our young people. We have covered every inch of this city with yellow flyers campaigning for this park during previous elections. We helped persuade people to change their opinion on the park when there were some signing a petition to have nothing at all allowed in and requesting that the site be sold. A total of 45 signatures had been gathered at this stage against the park. And yet now we who voted against the access route are made to feel like they are letting the children down — unbelievable. I was also saddened by the absence of people in the 16 to 25 age group; this age group are the heart of every community, county, country, yet I could see only one chap from this age group who came with his dad. Why was this age group absent?
And this brings me to my Christmas wish. I am pleading, begging, wishing, hoping that someone out there in this great city of ours resolves this issue before work commences through our estate. I am pleading with the politicians who will call to houses in The Butts during elections to be able to look us in the eye and tell us honestly, they have tried everything in their power to gain access through the Bonnettstown road. Because I know this question will be put to them when they are back on their election trail. I am pleading with the landowners to show some Christmas spirit and not allow what can only be described as a 14-week sentence on the parents of our community, who will turn anxiously any time they hear a vehicle approach to see where their little ones are. A feeling any parent can relate to, but for 14 weeks let’s not do this to them.
All I want for Christmas is the access route to be from the Bonnettstown road entrance. And give the people of The Butts a Christmas gift they more than deserve. Happy Christmas or humbug, you decide.
Yours sincerely,
Joe Woods, 50 Connolly Street
The Butts.
