€25K to go towards independent town report for Newbridge, County Kildare

placeholder image — FILE PHOTO of Newbridge / GOOGLE EARTH

The report will examine challenges currently affecting residents

Funding has been allocated to establish an independent town report for Newbridge.

Fianna Fáil councillor Rob Power made the suggestion for the report to Kildare County Council (KCC) at the latest Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District (MD) meeting.

The meeting, which was held on Wednesday, May 15 last, was the last MD meeting to take place before the upcoming Local Elections.

Cllr Rob Power called on KCC to allocate €25,000 of Local Property Tax funding towards the establishment of an independent town report, which he said 'would highlight the prominent challenges and solutions facing Newbridge.'

He explained: "A number of years ago, the Newbridge Forum was established as a network of stakeholders in the town, and it has done great work in identifying the challenges facing Newbridge as we go through unprecedented growth."

"These challenges will be fairly obvious to most people in the town and are coming up on the doors (while canvassing) a lot; for example(s), drug use in the town has increased, services for young people have not been delivered at the same rate as housing and more recently, as Newbridge becomes more diverse, there has been both insufficient integration measures and a rise in anti-migrant rhetoric."

"What's not as obvious however are the solutions... Many of these challenges are societal and don't fall under the aegis of one organisation but, if we want to build a town and a community that we're proud of we need to take steps to collaborate and put forward solutions."

One issue raised by Cllr Rob Power was a 'rise in anti-migrant rhetoric' within the town of Newbridge.

Cllr Power continued: "This proposal will deliver an independent report on the town providing a strong evidence base.

"It would also develop a common analysis and support collaborative approaches to addressing the needs of the town.

"Specifically, it would include a demographic profile of the town, key services and supports required to support the growing population and priorities, areas for future collaboration and key recommendations."

"It would build on what is in place, including: the Local Area Plan and Social Infrastructure Audit, Community Crime Impact Assessment and local plans including the Family Resource Centre and the County Childcare Needs Analysis," Cllr Power concluded.

After a brief deliberation, the proposal was approved unanimously by KCC and Cllr Power's fellow representatives.