One of the chief characteristics of Kilkenny is the high quality environment and landscape. Kilkenny is unique in that it has a fine 56-acre park and gardens in the centre of the city. The Castle Park and Rose Gardens are maintained by Duchas - The Heritage Service. Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will encourage and foster the principles of sustainable development with a specific aim of protecting the environment. It seeks to achieve a sustainable pattern and form of development, which will facilitate the conservation of natural resources and minimised pollution.

A Report on Open Space, Sport and Recreation Policies and Objectives was prepared in 2000. In it key policies and objectives were identified which should be taken into account when planning for leisure and recreation within Kilkenny City and County. The recommendations of the report have been taken into consideration.

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council, taking into account the Department of Environment broad policy objectives shall seek:

The quality of the environment, including visual, ecological, atmospheric and aquatic elements will be conserved and enhanced. Further measures will be taken to minimise any adverse impacts arising from development and land use changes.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to protect, conserve and enhance the attractive physical amenity of the city and environs.

Kilkenny’s riverside setting, with its floodplains penetrating into the developed areas as green wedges, provides a natural amenity enjoyed by inhabitants and visitors. Kilkenny Castle grounds provide a number of very fine views. The preservation and enhancement of this landscape and wildlife habitat is a continuing priority of the Planning Authority.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council to conserve and enhance the amenity of the River Nore corridor, including the landscape, water environment and wildlife habitats and where consistent with this, to encourage increased public access and water related recreation opportunities.

There is a very high standard of floral display, which contributes significantly to the ambience of Kilkenny City and Environs. Trees are an economic, environmental and landscape resource of great importance. Mature trees are concentrated mainly in Kilkenny Castle Park and in the grounds of Kilkenny College on the Castlecomer Road (formerly Celbridge House).

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to ensure that the existing trees in the central and environs area are retained and protected by means of Tree Preservation Orders as it is deemed necessary except where their removal is due to the interests of public safety and good design or the trees are in an unhealthy state.

A list of the more valuable trees in the City and Environs and which both local authorities will seek to retain except where their removal is due to the interests of public safety and good design or the trees are in an unhealthy state are given in appendix three of this plan.

A series of proposed flood elevation measures were prepared by the Office of Public Works to protect low lying areas of the city from flooding of the Nore and Breagagh rivers. Detailed design of these measures have been agreed, and work has commenced.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to permit development on the riverside where it can be demonstrated that a need for development is required and is sustainable.

Recreation leisure and sport are important components of a good quality of life and have major landuse implications. Adequate and accessible provision of open space, sport and recreational facilities is an important consideration in assessing the quality of life in a town or area. It is likely to become more important as densities in central areas increase and pressure from competing land uses becomes more intense.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to ensure that open space is provided to enhance the character of residential areas.

Public open space should be well designed from a visual perspective as well as functionally accessible to the maximum number of dwellings within a residential area. A well-designed open space will be based on the principles of adequate overlooking, supervision and accessibility. The emphasis should be placed on the retention of existing natural features and should be well proportioned. Narrow tracts of open spaces are non-functional, hard to maintain, therefore unacceptable and will not be considered in assessing the adequacy or otherwise of open space provision in a new residential development. In new development areas provision for open spaces should be identified at an early stage. It is important to plan for hard surface play areas.

Developers will be required to make provision for sport and recreational infrastructure as an integral element of their proposals. Such provision should include direct provision on or off site or a development levy to enable Kilkenny County Council to make appropriate alternative provision.

The Planning Authority will encourage developers to pool land for the purposes of open space requirements to allow for the provision of multipurpose amenity areas (e.g. playing pitches) as well as small ancillary open spaces within residential areas. The Planning Authority will charge an appropriate levy, which will be used for the pooling of land and development of amenity areas.

Many of the sports facilities within the city and the environs are in private ownership. Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will continue, where appropriate, to facilitate the provision of further facilities to which public access will be available where possible. Sporting facilities should be well managed and accessible.

The Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Borough Council will not normally permit development, which would result in the loss of public or private fields, parks, children’s playspace, amenity open space or land zoned for recreational or open space purposes.

An exception may be considered where the following requirements are demonstrably met:

• There is a clear excess of playing fields or open space provision within the area. This should take into account the long term needs of the community, the type, the recreational and amenity value of such provision;
• Alternative provision is made which is both accessible and of equal or greater quality and benefit to the community;
• The continued use and proper maintenance of the facility can best be achieved by the redevelopment of a small part of the site that will not adversely affect its sporting, recreational or amenity value.
• The site is indicated for an alternative use in the development plan.

A demand has been shown for both swimming and indoor dry facilities in Kilkenny to accommodate the needs of the general public who wish to pay and play, schools in the catchment and tourists who are visiting the city and require a weather independent amenity. The existing pool is exceptionally narrow, in poor condition and cannot be considered to meet modern standards.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to maintain and where possible to improve the provision of swimming facilities to include access for all impairments and disabilities including the elderly and children.

Kilkenny County Council will not normally permit new residential development unless open space is provided in accordance with the following standard - 2.4 hectares per 1000 population. A lesser standard of provision may be acceptable in urban locations where there are more sustainable patterns of development, thus maximum use can be made of urban land.

This also applies to redevelopment schemes where open space is already available with relatively high densities; flats, townhouses or apartments. This open space should amount to 10% of the total site area.

Within inner city residential developments, where open space provision is not feasible, the developer shall pay a contribution towards the provision of open space and amenity land.

Open space provision for smaller residential development and schemes catering for special groups such as accommodation for the elderly will be considered more flexibly and on merit.

Developers may also be required to provide an equipped children’s playground in association with open space provision where a development scheme would be greater than 800 metres from an existing easily accessible equipped children’s playground.

Developers will be required to make suitable provision for the future management and maintenance of open space required under this policy.

Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Borough Council will normally permit development proposals for outdoor recreational uses in the countryside, located in residential areas, generating high levels of noise and adjacent to waterways where the following criteria has been used to assess proposed development and are deemed acceptable:

TABLE 9.11: Criteria Used in the Assessment of Recreational Developments

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will normally only permit proposals for the floodlighting of recreational facilities where the amenities of adjacent residents will not be significantly impaired and the visual amenity and character of the locality will not be adversely affected.

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will continue to levy a sum of money from each proposed housing unit to fund the provision of both passive and active open space.

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will preserve suitable rights of way, create new ones where appropriate and promote their greater use in amenity areas. In order to link amenities and facilities, Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council may have to seek the provision of pedestrian ways as a condition of planning permission.

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council are aware that providing such routes can cause concern as these may give rise to antisocial behaviour particularly along unsupervised and secluded laneways. Every effort shall be made to avoid such a situation, through public lighting, appropriate layout and landscaping.

Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council will examine existing rights of way, paths, access points to the River Nore and other amenity areas to determine where public rights exist and where public rights of way should be created, for the provision of walking routes along the rivers and amenity areas of the City and Environs.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to preserve and protect existing rights of way and create new rights – of – way in the interest of amenity as the opportunity or need arises.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to encourage the provision of access routes to amenity areas in co-operation with landowners and protect amenity areas from infringement by inappropriate development.

Kilkenny has a number of sites, areas and vantage points on the margins of the city and in the environs, from which fine views of the city can be had. There are also a number of vantage points within the city from which particularly good views of the City’s most important public buildings and natural landscape features may be obtained. Of particular importance are views to and from the Castle, John’s Bridge, Greens Bridge, Ossary Bridge, the Cathedral and the riverbanks.

In evaluating planning applications for development in the foreground of any views, consideration shall be given to the effect the proposed development will have on the existing views, scenery and prospects.

It is the policy of Kilkenny Borough Council and Kilkenny County Council to preserve views and prospects of special amenity value or interest and to protect and improve the views from the main approach roads to the city. This shall be carried out through the control of development along these routes, encouraging the clearing of unsightly areas and providing amenity improvements, including landscaping.