Planning permission lodged for Eden school accommodation

Less than three weeks after Offaly County Council controversially voted to rezone land at Killane, Edenderry, to pave the way for badly needed school accommodation, the Minister for Education and Skills has applied for planning permission for the project. Councillors voted to rezone the land at their monthly council meeting in Aras an Chontae on June 10, though local opinion was not in full agreement that the proposed site was the right one for a new school building. Offaly County Council's planning department received a planning application for the new school accommodation on June 27. The Commission on School Accommodation identified the Dublin end of Edenderry as the ideal area for new school accommodation in 2005. Last February, however, the Department of Education handpicked land at the opposite end of the town on its western (Tullamore) side for new school buildings to house two Edenderry schools - Scoil Bhride and Gaelscoil - currently in temporary accommodation. Utilising this land at Killane required a change to the draft Edenderry local area plan for 2011-2017. Submissions relating to the rezoning raised concerns about traffic congestion and access. Edenderry Town Councillor Noel Cribbin also raised concerns that using the proposed site for school accommodation would leave Offaly County Council with no landbank to house the people in Edenderry on its housing list. At the June 10 Offaly County Council meeting Edenderry councillor Nicola Hogan's decision to vote for rezoning the land was driven by the acute need for school accommodation in the town, leaving her with "no option but to support it". At the same meeting Councillor Noel Bourke said that though on one hand there were concerns about the selected site, on the other hand two schools needed accommodation at the earliest possible date. "I'm not going to hold them up any longer than they need to," he said. The planning application received by Offaly County Council on June 27 seeks permission for construction of a two-storey primary school consisting of 24 classrooms, a general purpose room, a library, ancillary accommodation and four special needs units. The application also details work to include car parking, access roads, set down areas, ball courts and hard play areas. A decision is due on the planning application by August 21.