Navan

Planners are enthusiastically embracing and encouraging civic developments in Navan, in tandem with the town's current population explosion.

In just over four years, the population has shot up from 12,000 to close to 22,000. Designated one of the three centres of growth north of Dublin city (the other two are Balbriggan and Swords), it is set to have a population of 60,000 by 2016. Plans for the town centre include the redevelopment of the Market Square and the construction of a town park in the area known as Fair Green. Plans for the this area are indeed visionary with new offices, a court house, a theatre and an underground car-park mooted. A swimming-pool and recreation centre is currently being built at a cost of £4.5 million.

The recent enlargement of the Navan shopping centre has strengthened Navan as a shopping town. The IDA is currently building an advance factory in the 100-acre Navan Business Park. Companies such as Case ITC and Europ Assist are already in operation in the business park, which opened in 1997. There are numerous new housing developments on the outskirts of Navan and several townhouse/apartment developments in the town itself. Prices of a three-bedroom semi-detached new house are in the range of £130,000 to £150,000.

Insurance broker and vice president of Navan Chamber of Commerce, Frank Dempsey, says that Navan's expansion is indeed due to a lot of people from Dublin deciding to buy outside the capital. "Business is booming in Navan. There is 10 to 12 per cent growth expected in the next five years and employment is set to increase by 20 per cent in the retail trade."

In terms of infrastructure, a dual carriageway from Dublin to Kells is already at the planning stage. Local traffic has also been eased with the recent addition of a new bridge across the Blackwater river. And Navan people hope to get a rail link to Dublin within the next 10 years.

There are objections to ESB plans to built a power plant locally.