New enterprise centre and park and ride facility planned for Laytown lands
SOME 7.75 hectacres of land adjacent to Laytown train station are to be zoned in favour of a potential park and ride facility for the nearby station as well as a general enterprise location.
A pedestrian route to the station is also part of the proposals.
It is accepted that the village had a serious problem with all day parking, impacting on local businesses.
David Caffrey from Meath CC’s planning department told a recent meeting that the area had a new jobs target of 7,500 by 2020 and that over 10,000 people were living in the region. A proposal in the Local Area Development Plan is to reduce the need for people living in the area to commute to find work as this was deemed ‘unsustainable’.
The plan would ‘identify potentital additional employment lands’.
The lands were zoned ‘years ago’ for residential, but for Cllr Paddy Meade, the need for jobs locally is huge.
‘When you go into Laytown you just see cars on the road. The place is missing jobs.’
Cllr Sharon Tolan urged that the lands be able to take ‘ larger industries’, citing a problem in Drogheda in the past when a factory burned down and couldn’t get a ready to go unit.
Cllr Tom Kelly said he had people ‘out viewing the area’ and the news that Laytown was developing a possible location was ‘appropriate timing’.