Green light likely for Eden school site

A last minute plea by Edenderry Town Councillor Noel Cribbin for Offaly County councillors to postpone making a decision on zoning land for Edenderry schools looks to have fallen on deaf ears. Yesterday the three county councillors from Edenderry town confirmed they will be voting yes to the zoning changes, which will clear the way for the Department of Education to buy the land from Offaly County Council and begin the planning process to build two schools on the site. The matter is included on the agenda of Monday's county council meeting, which looks at alterations to the draft Edenderry local area plan for 2011-2017. Edenderry's Scoil Bhride and Gaelscoil are currently in dire need of new school premises. Originally land on the Dublin side of the town was earmarked for new schools. However, last February the Department of Education proposed land owned by Offaly County Council at the opposite end of the town for the development. Concerns have been raised locally regarding the distance between the majority of Edenderry's new housing estates on the Dublin side of town and the proposed new school site, as well as traffic congestion problems in the middle of the town. Edenderry town councillor Noel Cribbin shares these concerns, and is also concerned that if the proposed plans go ahead and the proposed land is re-zoned from housing to education Offaly County Council will have no available landbank to provide housing for the 350 people on the council's housing list in Edenderry. "We all want the best schools we can get," he told the Offaly Independent, "but we want the best location too. Once this school is built it's there forever." Cllr Cribbin said the proposed site for the new schools has "various problems with access". "The issue," he continued, "is that you're going to build a school in one end of the town and bring the kids from the other end of town. By building these two new schools there you're adding to congestion." "It's too quick," he said. "I'm appealing to the Offaly County councillors, nobably the Edenderry-based ones, that they consider the issues that are now coming forward. We should take a step back, look at all the options for the schools and not just the one that we're given. Let's get the best site for the schools, not just for today, for the future." A meeting in Edenderry Boys School on Wednesday evening with principal Sean Fitzgerald, parents and Edenderry councillors Nicola Hogan, John Foley and Noel Bourke, however, resulted in agreement to give the proposed site the thumbs up. "Both the parents and ourselves are at one on this," Cllr Bourke said. "We agreed we weren't entirely happy with the location proposed, but at the same time we are very conscious of the fact that two schools in temporary accommodation at the moment are in dire straits for proper accommodation. We agreed it would be wrong to turn down the proposal the department has made; we'd be putting the two schools concerned down the list. It was a very difficult decision, but we said that we would be adopting the plan at the meeting next Monday." Cllr Bourke added that though endorsing the plan councillors would endeavour to point out the unsuitability of the site to the Department of Education. Principal of Edenderry Boys National School Sean Fitzgerald was at the same meeting. He agreed with Cllr Bourke, but said the bottom line is the "huge urgency to get new schools". A final decision will be made on the matter at Offaly County Council's meeting next Monday afternoon.