Educate Together gets green light to build

AN Bord Pleanála has cleared the way for the construction of a new school building for South Galway’s only Educate Together primary school. The board of management of Kilcolgan Educate Together National School cautiously welcomed the decision by An Bord Pleanála.
Galway County Council granted permission to Tom Quinn, c/o Enplan Consultants Ltd, Tuam Road, Galway, back in August 2011 for the two-storey eight-classroom primary school. The project was also to include an indoor recreation area with a staff room, library, meeting rooms, resource rooms and parents rooms, outdoor play areas including an all-weather pitch, a detached building comprising a crèche at ground-floor level, medical consulting rooms at first floor level, 55 car-parking spaces, access from the N67 with turning circle and drop off area, pedestrian and cycle access from the N18 and associated works at Kilcolgan village.
This decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by Suzanne Quinn, c/o Brendan Slevin and Associates, Gort but last week the board upheld the permission.
Melinda Hughes, chair of the Kilcolgan Educate Together board of management, told The Clare Champion the decision is a positive one for the school.
“It is extremely welcome news. We are delighted that there is planning permission for a school in Kilcolgan but there is a lot more work to be done with the department before we can consider moving forward with it,” she said.
Ms Quinn’s appeal centred on a claim that the development “would result in a risk to pedestrians and cyclists owing to the inability to construct the proposed link from the N18 to the proposed school.” It also claimed a number of protocols were not followed during the planning application including not outlining the adjoining lands in blue prior to validation, not submitting “a full traffic impact assessment” and insufficient detail in the site notice.
The appeal stated the application should be refused on grounds that “substantial unauthorised works have been undertaken on the lands and there is a history of enforcement action against the applicant” and that “the application does not address the planning authority’s previous proposed reasons for refusal and the development would result in an adverse impact upon the capacity of the N18/N67 junction”.
It claimed there was “inadequate drop-off/pick-up facilities” and that the development would result in on-street parking. The appeal outlined what it said were “inadequate sightlines from the proposed entrance, particularly in a westerly direction where the vertical alignment is substandard”.
The development, the appeal said, would result in a loss of amenity for Ms Quinn “as a result of the childcare facility, overlooking, hours of operation and traffic accessing the development”. It also stated that the “adjoining sewage-treatment plant has not operated in accordance with the discharge licence and any remedial work has not been verified by independent sources. The development would therefore give rise to pollution.” Ms Quinn’s appeal also stated that there are “appropriate alternative locations in Kilcolgan for the proposed facilities.”
The applicant, Tom Quinn, through Enplan, responded to the appeal stating the appeal is vexatious, a claim denied by MacCabe Durney Barnes for Ms Quinn. It added that the existing school accommodation in the village of Kilcolgan is operating over capacity, that the existing school premises is short of play space and generally unfit for purpose, that the site is one preferred by Galway County Council over other sites for the purpose of school development and that any historic planning breaches associated with the landholding are unrelated to the proposed development has been designed to take account of residential amenity, the concerns of neighbour Ms Quinn, “notably in respect of overlooking considerations and use of all-weather pitch and lighting”.
An Bord Pleanála granted permission for the school saying, “The proposed development would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity, would not be prejudicial to public health, would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience and would be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.
It did, however, attach 16 conditions to the permission including that a public footpath be provided along the length of the N67 road frontage, that all service cables associated with the development be located underground, that parking for cars and bikes be clearly outlined on the site and that public lighting be supplied.