Council decision to turn down Cinema for Celbridge hard to fathom

I find the decision by Kildare County Council to turn down a multi screen cinema for Celbridge very hard to fathom.   The location for the proposed Cinema was between Crodaun Forest Park and the Roundabout,  which has become the primary vehicular entrance to the town following the connection with the Motorway.  This location  would have provided an entertainment opportunity for the populations  of all the   North Kildare towns,   the combined population of which is in excess of 50,000.   

The zoning on the land is primarily Industry and Warehousing with one section designated for Retail,  however,  the Warehousing  zoning does allow for a Cinema.   During the debate on the recent Celbridge Local Area plan,  I strenuously argued that such a major entrance to Celbridge should include attractive buildings and should not be covered by warehouses.   

There is a very large young population in Celbridge that needs to be provided for now,   this type of commercial leisure would be an ideal outlet.   One of the reasons advanced for turning down the Cinema is the proximity of the Celbridge site  to Collinstown.   However,  Collinstown is not expected to materialise in the short term,   many of the youngsters will have grown up and gone before there is a chance of a cinema being  provided here.    The physical planning of our towns must not be done in isolation from  their  social development.    I would far rather see queues for a cinema in Celbridge than groups of young people walking about  with nowhere to go.

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Posted by catherinemurphy on August 17, 2010. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.