While the level of housing here are increased exponentially, the space for kids to play has decreased just as much.

The housing estates are not planned like Garden City, Tudor Grove or even Alderbrook were, with front gardens, back gardens and space around the houses for kids to play. Instead, housing estates are being built on main roads with no common areas and sometimes no front OR back gardens.

This may be the way of planning estates now which is unfortunate but to counteract the lack of communal spaces for kids, a park is a definite requirement for Ashbourne now. So much of the available space is privately owned or part of a fee paying organisation eg soccer pitches or community centre lands. Covid has shown us the limited amount of space we have here to walk in, 5km restrictions meant we were all walking around housing estates while people in other parts of Meath and Dublin had parks and/or country roads to walk around. We are landlocked and becoming a concrete jungle, kids need to play, Ashbourne needs to remain an attractive commuter town. MCC needs to commit to the people of Ashbourne the way that it does to other parts of Meath like Trim, Slane or Navan and ensure that the inhabitants have space to enjoy with their families, or their pets or just for a nice walk on a sunny day for their mental health.