Plans for campervan parking site discussed at council meeting

PLANS for a campervan parking site along the River Barrow were discussed at last week’s meeting of Carlow Co Council.

Cllr Fergal Browne said it would be “a no brainer”, considering the number of tourists coming through the town, spending money in restaurants and pubs, but then having nowhere to park overnight.

“It’s a simple operation. It’s just a question of ringfencing existing car parking spaces and we’d need a power supply or something,” he stated.

Coilín O’Reilly, CEO of Carlow Co Council, agreed that a campervan site would be a great addition and said he had approached a site in Bagenalstown but that it wasn’t going to work out. “The other option, as you know, is we bought the Barrow Track landbank behind us,” he mentioned.

The council purchased the site, which was earmarked for a shopping centre development before the 2008 financial crash and had since lain fallow, in April 2026. “The plan is that half of that is going to be older persons social housing, the other half will be a park, and I think we could put provision for ten spaces there as well,” said Mr O’Reilly.

Cllr Browne also asked for an update on the Barrow Blueway project. Mr O’Reilly was emphatic about the project. “Just to be very clear: there is no blueway. It doesn’t exist; it’s not a live project in Carlow. There are works that Waterways Ireland want to do to the River Barrow from a maintenance perspective.” 

Planning permission for the Carlow part of the blueway was refused by An Comisiún Pleanála in April 2019, while the Kildare and Laois sections were approved.

There is a live appeal ongoing regarding the council’s granting of permission in February 2025 for Waterways Ireland maintenance and repair works to the Barrow navigation, consisting of bank strengthening works, post-flood spot dredging, maintenance dredging and trackway surface upgrade works. A decision is due from An Comisiún Pleanála on 14 July.

“From our position, all we can do is done,” said Mr O’Reilly. “It’s not our decision. My suspicion is that the delay is to do with complex environmental difficulties which are the basis of the appeal. It takes time to conduct the environmental studies.” 

When people use the term ‘blueway’, said Mr O’Reilly, “what people expect is a path out to Achill and the trainline in Waterford. It won’t be that. It will be mostly the same, but with a series of projects.” 

Cllr John Cassin noted that you can walk across part of the Barrow river because of a build-up of silt and he remembered it being “six or seven feet deep” when he was a young lad.

The delay is “bizarre, disappointing and I hope we won’t be here next year talking about the same thing,” said cllr Michael Doran.