€200,000 Allenders Field role queried

Kilkee Town Councillor Claire Haugh has expressed her disappointment with how Allenders Field, located in the East End of the town, just off the Miltown Malbay Road, has not fulfilled its role as a recreational green walking area in the town.

The field was opened in late June 2007 at a cost of €200,000 under the Urban and Village Renewal and Village Enhancement schemes.
It subsequently fell into a state of disrepair before 300 plants and 30 trees were planted there recently. This followed the failure of the original plants to grow.
“What is the object of Allender’s Field?” Councillor Haugh asked at Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council.
“There’s nothing happening up there. You can’t force people to go in and sit there,” she said.
Mayor of Kilkee, Lily Marrinan-Sullivan, concurred with Councillor Haugh’s sentiments.
“It didn’t look like it was finished even when it was finished,” Councillor Marrinan-Sullivan lamented.
“You could have a beautiful oasis in Allender’s Field,” she added, before stating that local people did not want a playground there. “They wanted a green area,” the Mayor of Kilkee stated, before noting that lighting was due to have been included in the development but wasn’t.
“I think we have to get our heads together and maybe revisit it. We owe it to the people of the town to get it right,” Councillor Haugh said.
Kilkee Town Clerk John Corry expressed his “disillusionment” with Allender’s Field before predicting that the newly planted shrubs and trees would flower next spring.
In conclusion, Councillor Paddy Collins suggested that each councillor return to the November town council meeting with an idea apiece with regard to how best to utilise and improve Allender’s Field.