Approval for major school extension

Coláiste Choilm in Tullamore has been granted planning approval for a three-storey extension that will help increase its capacity to 750 students.

The secondary school on O'Moore Street was given the green light for the development by council planners at the end of September.

The project is set to involve the demolition of an external store building, to be replaced with a new three-storey extension.

The plans state that the new extension to the school, along with "minor alteration to the layout of the existing building" will allow for an increase in capacity from 620 pupils to 750 pupils.

The existing school has 25 standard classrooms, and the planned extension is to include the addition of eleven general classrooms including a two-classroom Special Education Needs (SEN) Unit.

In addition, the school’s car park is to be redeveloped to provide 22 additional parking spaces along with 150 bicycle spaces. Seven of the parking spaces will be adapted to allow for the charging of electric vehicles.

New footpaths, an external play area and landscaping works also form part of the project.

In the planning application, lodged on behalf of the school’s board of management in April of this year, the creation of a new vehicle entrance and fire tender entrance off Bachelor’s Walk was proposed.

This aspect of the plan was subsequently dropped after Offaly County Council requested significant further information on the plans, including further details about the proposed vehicular entrance.

In its response to the further information request, the school said it was “now proposed not to widen up the existing pedestrian gate to allow for vehicular access.

“Therefore, no works are now proposed here and the existing gate is to be retained. Maintenance and fire tender access to the new extension is now proposed off the existing access road within the school site,” said Coady Architects, on behalf of the school.

In its decision, which was signed off on September 30, the council granted planning permission for the development, subject to four conditions.

The principal of Coláiste Choilm, Tadhg O’Sullivan, was not available for comment when contacted by the Offaly Independent this week.