Agreement needed on location of Tullow playground

JUST weeks after the fractious Tullow Municipal District meeting that saw proposals for a playground in the 1798 Park scrapped, Carlow County Council reaffirmed the need for a playground in Tullow at its November meeting.

In response to the issue of a location for the proposed Tullow playground being raised by councillor Ben Wade, Coilín O’Reilly, the council’s chief executive, said: “Tullow needs a playground, and we do need to identify a location jointly between us all that is acceptable and move forward with it as a project.

“So we will continue to engage on that. The location that we had is obviously not going ahead, but we will find a new location, we will get funded and we will proceed with the playground at that location”.

Some €45,000 in funding had been secured for the building of a new playground in the 1798 Park. Municipal district councillors voted against granting planning permission for the playground after concerns were raised from local residents in the Parc Mhuire estate about the potential for increased anti-social behaviour that the new playground might bring to the area.

The tense municipal district meeting saw passionate declarations being made by both sides and accusations of ‘cowardice’ and ‘vote-chasing’.