Machinery moves back into new town park

THE hum of machinery pervaded the council chamber at last week’s district council meeting as work was back underway on the new Orchard Park, behind the Presentation Centre.

As has been documented in the past, the park was one of those projects which fell victim to the now infamous collapse of UK construction giants Carillion. The contractor, Crawfords, commenced work on the 1.2 hectare park, which will link the existing Presentation Centre Garden with Irish Street, in October of 2017. Work, however, ground to a halt in Spring of this year, with the park supposedly just weeks away from completion, as Crawfords entered administration.

Several contractors were left out of pocket as a result of work they completed on the park in good faith, some to the tune of between twenty and thirty thousand euro. Sole Sport and Leisure Ltd commenced work on the site once again on August 20 and have been busy working away since.

District Manager Liz Hore informed the councillors that she expected the majority of the hard landscaping will be completed by the end of October, while the rest of the work should be finished in November.

When asked about a time-frame for the opening of the park, Ms Hore said that it was likely that they’d wait until the weather improves once again rather than opening in the depths of winter.

‘So you’re probably talking next July then!’ Cllr Paddy Kavanagh exclaimed to chuckles around the room.