Newbridge Chat Thread

The 3/4 storey development near Newbridge Train Station has received permission for 16 housing units (consisting of apartments and duplexes) and 5 retail units (including 1 'large neighbourhood shop').

In total, the site (across separate developers and planning applications) has permission for ~88 new housing units.

Yep, beside The Gym Newbridge opposite the DOD. Surrounded by the wooden fence. There's a bit of work going on in the "front section" of the site.

I'm not 100% sure. It was part of the first application but the second application doesn't seem to make reference to any fuel station. There's fairly big changes made in between the two applications (reconfigured layout, moving of apartment blocks, etc.). If it was dropped, I'm not sure why it was from a "commercial" standpoint because that side of Newbridge lacks petrol stations (as far as I can recall, the one on Naas Road would be the closest to many houses in the area) so I would've thought it would be fairly popular (though I'm not advocating for or against more petrol stations).

If I'm wrong and someone knows feel free to correct me.

Anyone who bought in Curragh Farm in Newbridge, can you comment on the estate please? Thinking of buying here. How’s the experience so far with the houses, transport, traffic, and other amenities.

Anyone know what is coming up next the Maxol?

Kildare County Council is beginning to create the Newbridge Local Area Plan for 2025-2031.

It's taking submissions that will (hopefully) inform the creation of the plan. It'd be great to get a lot of submissions to make it clear to Kildare County Council that Newbridge residents have a lot of demands for the town (as is evident if you ever look at a Newbridge Facebook group).

Newbridge has a large population in a relatively small area so it has great potential for services that improve the quality of life. From what I can tell, some of the biggest issues are:

• Transport: This would be a big one. It can't be denied that there are huge traffic issues in Newbridge. Since Newbridge has a large (in Ireland terms) population in a small-ish area, there's great scope for improved local bus routes. With WhiteWater and basically all the retail and services very close in the town, it could be a very popular way to get people to those services without the car. We've seen how successful the Carlow routes are. More blatant recognition that Newbridge is a commuter town is essential (whether it's good to have a commuter town 40km away from Dublin is good or not, it has happened and with the way the large new builds are marketed as the perfect commuter home, it will not slow down anytime soon). The 2nd bridge definitely needs to be funded and perhaps a proper ring road.
• Public amenities: There's a lot of appetite for public spaces - pools, parks/open spaces, etc. I'm not sure the scope for the council's involvement with this, but anything that puts public services into Newbridge (instead of Newbridge residents travelling elsewhere) would be great.
• Town centre "renewal": This is not to say the town centre is severely run down, but it could be a lot better. Making it a more inviting area is important.
• Infrastructure: The town is in dire need of schools, GPs, etc. The council are aware of this and there are some plans but it's worth 'reminding' them.

While I know these endless consultations seem meaningless, local area plans do get reasonable acted on, so it's important to voice your opinions and make a submission.

Newbridge is a large player in South Kildare and it's important it continues to so that the area is well-served with visions on par with those of Naas or Maynooth - hopefully this plan will be innovative!

No, I understand. Things have been moving slow in Newbridge for a long time.

The bridge is heading in a promising direction, though still some ways off yet. Development around the area at Lidl RDC seems to have kick-started most of this to be honest. With the potential for Diageo setting up there (and presumably by the road layout and site layout, attracting more industry), it seems that will provide some incentive for that. Though unfortunate that it might take business to get it done, it would be good nonetheless.

(Edit: Private developers offering the planning also helped as well, I just don't think KCC have the in-house capacity for it anymore. That probably was more the reason than the whole Lidl thing now that I think of it, since lorries wouldn't really be heading that direction, they'd probably be coming from Newhall direction)

Maynooth was more of an example of just the general direction of a town - you're right, car traffic is still bad there - but it's a designated key town and has projects in works (like DART). Not saying we should have DART or anything but due to it's designation as a key town, it's liable to get more funding for more ambitious projects.

Carlow got 2 new town bus routes that operate at 30 min frequencies around the town at cheap fares. The general reception has been positive and I presume there's scope there for 1 or 2 more routes if things go well.

Local Area Plans generally tend to be done asynchronously to election cycles. Newbridge's last Local Area Plan was "expired" for a while so it's overdue. I don't think councillors have a huge input into this sort of thing.

There are some promising things - the redevelopment of St. Conleths Park, the redeveloped Library plans, planning for a 2nd bridge, redeveloped Bord Na Móna HQ (more for aesthetic direction) - all point towards somewhat promising outlooks.

I would err on the side of pessimism when it comes to these things myself, but at the same time I think it does good to remain somewhat hopeful for these things.

I'm not 100% sure. There isn't really much land close to the new development and it is sort of surrounded on all sides by other developments/buildings. If you're interested, 181367 is the planning number for the nearly-completed development.

There is definitely a large site to the south, near Belin Woods, but much of that is with An Bord Pleanála where Aston Ltd. (the same company that got permission for the 2nd bridge) are seeking permission for ~560 houses/apartments (Great Connell SHD). The project is long overdue a decision and, while I'm not 100% sure on the rules, it seems as though it could've been a potentially invalid submission due to changes in how large housing projects are dealt with by ABP.

However, since KCC have given permission for the 2nd bridge by the same company, that might go in this developments favour - especially since their proposed development was visible in renderings and drawings of the bridge. But, if it is granted, it would probably one of the largest housing developments in Newbridge in a very long time and would see considerable population increase - it would need KCC to seriously think about the infrastructure situation in Newbridge.

Yes, you're right! I know exactly what you're on about now - in front of the Curragh Farm development? Can't believe I mixed up the two.

If I could delete my post I would because it's completely the wrong answer to the original question 😅.

Thanks for pointing that out.