Confidence over Progress on Kilcock town centre site

By Peter Kelly  (Liffey Champion, Page 2)

Kilcock Residents may be hearing about developments at The Old Monastery site in the town centre very soon. Little has been heard over the last two years about the site but at the recent Clane Area Committee meeting on 9^th February), Cllr. Liam Doyle (FF) said that there may be some move on plans to bring the site back to use in the not too distant future after meeing with Kildare County Council earlier in the day. He said that the meeting was a good one and he is now waiting on a report on it. However, Cllr. Doyle would not be pressed any further on the issue as the meeting drew to an end.

John Bruton to speak at the Maynooth/Kilcock Lions Club charity presentations

By Aideen Sutton (Liffey Champion, Page 9)

John Bruton

Former Taoiseach and retired EU ambassador to the USA, John Bruton, was to speak at a Maynooth/Kilcock Lions Club Presentation ceremony at 6pm on Thursday 18^th February.

The event was to take place at the club’s sheltered housing development, Nagle Court on the Dunboyne Road in Maynooth and afterwards Mr. Bruton was to meet the residents and members of the Lions Club.

Funds for various local causes were to be presented at the event also. These causes include school book funds for Maynooth Post Primary and Scoil Dara in Kilcock, Alzheimer respite care and the campaign for a new parish hall.

When the state budgets were cut, funds in schools for book supply were no longer supported by grants so the Lions Club stepped in and offered help from funds raised from the community through various projects. The 2 secondary schools were to each receive €2000.

More Suicide Prevention workshops planned for north Kildare

By Sarah Egan ( Liffey Champion, Page 5)

A new ‘Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention sub group for north east Kildare’ has been set up to tackle the issue of suicide in the area. Further mental health and suicide prevention seminars are being planned for 2010 following the success of last year’s seminars in Maynooth.

Deirdre Cullen, member of the sub group, has said that they are looking at the issues of young people and they are hoping to do an evening of talks for parents and teenagers soon. She added that there are 17,000 young people and 8,000 NUI Maynooth Students in the area which is why it’s so important to provide help and support to a group which makes up and third of the population.

The sub group caters for Maynooth, Celbridge, Leixlip, Kilcock and the surrounding area and has membership from the HSE, Kildare Youth Service, Mental Health Ireland, Leixlip Town Council and the Community Councils in Maynooth, Celbridge and Kilcock.

http://www.suicide.ie/

http://www.aware.ie/

http://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/

Haiti collections bring in more than €70,000

By Peter Kelly (Liffey Champion, Page 6)

More than €70,000 was raised last week by parishioners at masses across north Kildare and Lucan to help the people of Haiti. It follows the devastating earthquake which struck the poorest country in the Northern Hemisphere 5 weeks ago.

The Parish Priest of Kilcock and Newtown, Fr. PJ Byrne, praised people for their generosity and support they have shown towards the Haitian people. This follows recent collections that were taken in Clane and Rathcoffey Parish where €5,568 was raised and in Cooleragh and Staplestown where €5,540 was raised. The Justice and Peace Group in Lucan also raised €18,000 last month.

Therese Brady is a local aspiring writer and writes mainly about food, fiction – novels and short stories, restaurant, movie and book reviews and I have my own website www.theresebrady.com and blog called Writer’s Cramp. This is where I keep my creative juices flowing during those down moments of writer’s block. I’ve completed one novel and am currently working on the second. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.

The main news in Kilcock this week is still the state of our crumbling roads causing residents enormous headaches and to empty their pockets for car repairs. Also the Class sizes in North Kildare are causing major concern among schools.

However, in my opinion, a very important story that we should all take note of is the recent spate of house burglaries. Please be extra vigilant by locking all doors and windows, arming your security alarms and especially by hiding your car keys and valuables as it seems that these burglars are after people’s vehicles rather than money or electrical goods.

Residents fed up with dangerous state of roads in Kilcock

by Sarah Egan (LiffeyChampion – Front Page & cont P15 )

Kilcock Potholes

The dangerous state of the roads in Kilcock made front page of the Leinster Champion again this week. The damage has been caused by the Sewage scheme works and the freezing weather we have experienced in recent months. The crumbling roads and huge potholes are resulting in burst car tyres and rims coming of wheels. Fr. PJ Byrne, Parish Priest, said the residents have demonstrated a lot of patience in waiting for necessary works to be completed, but the various roadwork’s that are being carried out at the same time is upsetting both residents and having a huge negative impact on local businesses.  He points out that more communication is needed to help people endure these inconveniences and a speedy conclusion of repairs of the roads.

A Facebook page has been set up called ‘Repair Kilcock’s Roads Now!!!’ to give people a forum to vent their anger. As of the 17^th February there were 329 members.  At the last meeting of the Clane Area Committee, Cllr. Padraig McEvoy (Ind) assured that he has since met with engineers who have promised to carry out repair works. These include improving the quality of the temporary resurfacing and repairing potholes along the new sewer line route.  They’ve have also promised to co-ordinate pothole repairs on other roads that are outside the sewer contract, to install and interim “tidy” road surface in mid-march and to carry out a post subsidence, high quality surfacing around six months after the contractors finish works.

We will wait and see if, within the next month, these pothole repairs and temporary resurfacing is actually carried out as promised.

Class sizes still higher than average

by Henry Bauress (Leinster Leader – 18 Feb 2010)

Class Sizes

Class sizes in the main towns in north Kildare are even bigger than those around the country. Figures given to Kildare North TD, Emmet Stagg recently showed that in the 2008/2009 school year 23% of primary school pupils in North Co. Kildare were being taught in classes of 30 or more and that 51% of pupils were being taught in classes ranging from 25 to 29 pupils.

While the native average is 40% (25-29) and 18% (30-34), Celbridge has 76% in the 25-29 category and 16% in the 30-34 pupil category. Other high proportions in the 25-29 size are Naas (64%), Clane (59%), Leixlip (48%), Kilcock (45%), Kill (37%) and Maynooth (34%).

54% of Kill pupils are in classes of 30-34, while the proportions in other towns are Maynooth (38%), Clane and Leixlip (25%), Naas (15%) Kilcock (14%)

Deputy Stagg said these figures do not take into account the change announced in Budget 2009 which increased pupil/teacher ratios to 28 to 1, adding that “whilst the 2009/2010 figures are not available we can assume that things have only got worse.”

“These figures show that principals and teachers throughout north Kildare are under immense pressure to deliver proper education to our children and the Government, despite repeated promises, are now in the process of gradually increasing class sizes again, putting the future education of our children at risk,” he said.

As Kilcock is a commuter town with a lot of young families with small children, I for one believe this is a very important issue that we must tackle. I was in a class of 40 + when I was in Dunboyne GNS many moons ago. At one stage, I was in a class of 45 and 7 of us had to be put forward one year to balance the numbers of students in the classes. This resulted in us 7 skipping a year but then being held back in 6^th class. I thought those days were over. Obviously I was wrong.

Maynooth, Celbridge and Kilcock hit by burglaries

Article by Sarah Egan (Liffey Champion, Page 6)

Prevent House Burglaries

Two houses in Maynooth, one in Celbridge and one in The Hawthorns in Kilcock were broken into during the early hours of last Sunday 14^th February. The following day (again in the early hours) another house in Maynooth was broken into and in all cases, car keys were taken from the houses and the cars stolen from the owners’ driveways.  Gardaí say that in each incident the barrel of the lock of the front or back doors were popped to get in and nothing else was taken except for car keys. They are urging homeowners not to leave car keys visible at a night and to lock up adequately and to arm any security alarms.

All incidents are under investigation and Gardaí are appealing for information regarding any suspicious persons or vehicles that may have been seen in the areas at the time.  Contact the Gardaí at Maynooth Garda Station on 01-6292380, Celbridge 01-6288222 or Kilcock 01-6287202.

Therese Brady is a local aspiring writer and writes mainly about food, fiction – novels and short stories, restaurant, movie and book reviews and I have my own website www.theresebrady.com and blog called Writer’s Cramp. This is where I keep my creative juices flowing during those down moments of writer’s block. I’ve completed one novel and am currently working on the second. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.

This is my first weekly roundup of Kilcock Local News. I’m really looking forward to bringing you this regular update on what’s happening in our town and what’s being said about it in local news. I’ll be scouring the newspapers and Internet for anything that concerns where we live and if there is anything newsworthy going on in the area that you’d like me to write about, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Anger at Kilcock court rumours

http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/Anger-at-Kilcock-court-rumours.6059454.jp

In the Leinster Leader (10th February 2010), an article by Conor McHugh brought our attention to the rumour that Kilcock Court’s fortnightly sittings could be moved to Naas in the future. However, it seems that no decision has been made on the matter at this stage and reviews of all court locations are taking place, according to a Court Service Spokesperson.

The issues concerning Kilcock locals and business owners were outlined by Councillor Liam Doyle to the Leinster Leader. If the court is moved to Naas, business in Kilcock will be greatly decreased. The lack of adequate parking facilities in Naas combined with poor public transport links between the towns is of huge concern to those without transport. Moving the court would also have a detrimental effect on security in the area as it would mean that the Garda Station (which is currently able to stay open during court days) would have to close due to lack of resources.

Kilcock Business Association spoke out upon hearing the rumours and echoed Cllr. Doyle’s concerns about local business by saying that it will have “huge negative implications on Leixlip, Maynooth, Kilcock, Newtown, Tirmohan, Johnstown Bridge and Carbury.” They are also concerned that currently there are up to 10 Garda Cars visible and patrolling the area on a court day and if the court is moved to Naas they would no longer be centrally located to respond to any emergencies in the District with minimum delay.

Another issue concerning the KBA is that people involved will have to take public transport into Dublin and back out again to Naas which would incur extra costs and considerable time lost from work.

Cllr. Doyle suggests that the local GAA Club, which currently lies empty during the day, could be considered as a venue for Court sittings as there is ample parking and a good sized hall that could accommodate people. “I’m sure that the committee of the GAA would be open to discussions on making their facilities available to the court services, until such time as new facilities could be provided within the confines of the town” commented Cllr. Doyle.

The spokesperson for the Court Service added that the proposed building of a new courthouse in Maynooth was being pursued, subject to funding availability.

Unemployment continue to rise in north Kildare

The level of unemployment in North Kildare continues to rise as 93 more people signed onto the Live Register for Unemployment Assistance at Maynooth Social Welfare Office in January 2010.

An article in the Liffey Champion (13^th February page 11) by Sarah Egan tells outlines how the total number of people signing on in Maynooth at the end of January rose to 5,853 according to the Central Statistics Office.

This is an increase of 1,669 in North Kildare in the last 12 months. The number of unemployed people in the whole County has more than doubled in the last two years with 367 people signing on in January 2010, with the overall figure of rising from 17,229 in Dec 2009 to 17,596 in January 2010.

Therese Brady is a local aspiring writer and writes mainly about food, fiction – novels and short stories, restaurant, movie and book reviews and I have my own website www.theresebrady.com and blog called Writer’s Cramp. This is where I keep my creative juices flowing during those down moments of writer’s block. I’ve completed one novel and am currently working on the second. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.