Report Paul Murphy
Navan Fianna Fail Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons has declared that he is against the pedestrianisation of the town’s main shopping street, Trimgate Street. “I’m not in favour of it whatsoever, and won’t be. The traders are not appreciative of it and won’t be. It is the main artery through the town”.
He said the area around Kennedy Plaza was a place where there had been antisocial behaviour but since the buses had been rerouted to that area, the number of people around the area had reduced that behaviour. He felt that the pedestrianisation of Trimgate Street would lead to less movement of people through that street, especially on darker Winter nights.
The engineers said that aspects of the public realm schemes at Cornmarket and Fair Green were running in parallel and going well. These had commenced in August last year. It is hoped that the Fair Green car park upgrade including surfacing and line marking would be complete at the end of this month after which the council would move to the next phase, Church Hill and the area known as Sheep Market.
When the school holidays start work will be done along Fair Green Road and near the school. The Church Hill works will start on 31st March. A traffic management plan, with appropriate signage, will be put in place. The road will be made one-way from East to West, from the Newgrange Hotel back towards the junction with Circular Road.
Disappointment that the Navan to Trim Pathfinder scheme could not go ahead due to lack of funding was expressed by Cllr Fitzsimons. He also asked about works planned for Balreask Cross.
Independent Cllr Francis Deane, referring to the Navan-Trim Pathfinder scheme said that it would be a relatively easy scheme to put in place because there was not a great number of stakeholders involved. He hoped that funding would be made available for the scheme. Something they would have to look at as Navan grows is the issue of off-street parking. At one stage some years ago the council had looked at the possibility of getting some gardens at the back of Railway street for parking purposes.
Aontu Cllr Emer Toibin said that she opposed the pedestrianisation of Trimgate Street. She did not want to see money being spent on planning the scheme only for it to be rejected. However, an official said that a random survey of people on the street showed that there was public support for the idea of the upgrading and pedestrianisation.
Independent Cllr Alan Lawes said he did not believe that the street survey was accurate. He agreed with Cllr Toibin’s point – why spend all the money planning the scheme when there was such a level of objection to it.
