New Waterford playground to be constructed next year amid ‘population explosion’

A new playground is set to be constructed in Waterford city next year amid a “population explosion”.

The proposed Kilcaragh Park in Ballygunner came before councillors at the December Metropolitan District meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

The site, which is located beside the existing Kilcaragh housing estate, will contain a playground, plaza areas, footpaths, lighting, art, seating and cycling stands.

A public consultation process was recently undertaken, to which the council received one submission.

This came from the residents of the neighbouring estate, who the council subsequently met with to discuss the project.

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Following this meeting, a number of amendments were made to the proposal, subject to the approval of local councillors.

Social Democrats councillor Mary Roche said she was “very happy” to propose that the council proceed with the project.

She explained how herself and the late Gary Wyse, father of current Metropolitan Mayor Adam Wyse, had spent years advocating for such a development.

Cllr Roche called on the council to install more playgrounds across the city and emphasised their importance.

She stated: “You know the acute need there in the Williamstown area for this type of facility and I’d like to see the council be a little bit more proactive in providing these facilities.

“I have said a hundred times in these council chambers that our playgrounds are the hardest working pieces of infrastructure that we have.

“They owe us nothing in terms of the value that they give to our communities and the amount of use they get is absolutely phenomenal.”

Cllr Roche also called on the new playground in Ballygunner to be named Ballygunner Park, rather than Kilcaragh Park.

“One final point is the name of the park. We’ve called it Kilcaragh Park as kind of a working title because it’s next to Kilcaragh but when we consulted with the residents and the children out there they said they identified more with Ballygunner.

“So we should consider renaming or naming it in the fullness of time as Ballygunner Park or else coming up with some kind of a process whereby we would ask the residents out there if they had any ideas, but I wouldn’t think we should proceed with the Kilcaragh name as written in stone as it were.”

Cllr Adam Wyse agreed, saying he has lived in the area for 20 years and has only ever known it as Ballygunner.

Independent councillor Declan Barry also spoke on the playground and said he was “really delighted” with the proposed development.

He continued: “I would like to echo Cllr Roche’s sentiments and thoughts on this. Obviously, we’ve waited a long time.

“The Williamstown Road and the Dunmore Road is saturated with housing and [there is] more and more coming.

“But what I don’t see coming hand in hand is amenities to go with all the new residents and housing estates popping up everywhere.

“I also hope this won’t be the last amenity and that there will be others planned because it’s just a population explosion out there on that side of the city.”

Cllr Barry concluded by asking when councillors can expect the playground to be completed.

In response, the council executive said that the plan is for the tender process to begin in early 2026 and for the playground to be constructed by the end of the year.

It also stated that it would take councillors’ comments on board with regards the name of the playground.