'Every day that passes, we are denying those children': Nolan hits out over delays to all-inclusive playground at former Longford dog track
Council bosses are coming under fire over the projected €500,000 it will cost to install an all-inclusive playground on the site of Longford town’s former greyhound track.
Early estimations have put the project at around the €550,000 mark in a development that is also expected to provide access onto the Royal Canal Greenway in a bid to enhance the county town’s tourism appeal.
An application for funding is expected to be submitted to Rural Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys’ department by next Friday with a view to securing funding under the State’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme.
Fine Gael Cllr Peggy Nolan has expressed her concern over the scope and size of the plan, saying parents are becoming increasingly frustrated as a result.
“These parents don’t want bells and whistles,” she said. “What they want is a play area that is specific to their children which gives them a chance to express themselves.”
Cllr Nolan said a number of those she had been in talks with had expressed a desire to see a playground currently in situ in Newtownforbes to be replicated on the site of the former dog track.
“The buzz word is all about inclusivity and it behoves us a local authority to deliver on that.
“Every day that passes we are denying those children in our community a safe and special place for them to use and play in.
“We have the site and we also have without any architectural headaches, they (parents) identified the play area in Newtown and the only tweaking that needed to be made out there was instead of the tarmacadam, they wanted grass and a special fence.”
Cllr Nolan singled out the part played by Longford County Council architect Richard Smith in progressing the plan and expressed a desire for it to be fast-tracked as soon as possible.