Plans for new 1,000-pupil school lodged
Plans for a new secondary school in Edenderry have taken a major step forward with a planning application being lodged on behalf of Oaklands Community College for a new 1,000 student school on the site of a partially built hotel.
Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) has lodged an application with Offaly County Council for the demolition of a partially completed hotel structure at Fr McWey Street, Downshire, Edenderry, and the construction of a 10,989 square metre two-storey new post-primary school.
The school is designed to replace the existing Oaklands Community College which is located on Saint Senan's Avenue in the town and would cater for 1,000 pupils.
The plans also make provision for 122 staff and visitor car parking spaces, seven of which will be accessible; 200 covered bicycle spaces; six fenced ballcourts, boundary walls and gates and all associated site works. It is proposed to provide vehicular and pedestrian access to the new school from Downshire Ring Road on the western side, with all vehicles and pedestrians exiting on the southern side. The new school allows for 37 general purpose classrooms and 24 specialist classrooms and will also have three courtyards, a general purposes room and a PE hall.
The proposed site is a brownfield site located to the north of Edenderry town centre, beside the Edenderry Shopping Centre. The 4.62 hectare site was subject to a masterplan planning application in 2006, and planning permission was granted for a hotel in a subsequent application.
Despite the commencement of construction works on the Eden Plaza hotel in 2007, the project was never completed. The partially built hotel has lain idle ever since and is understood to have been the subject of a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour.
An Architect's Design Report which accompanies the planning application states that the “co-educational, multi-denominational, multi-cultural” Oaklands Community College has a current enrolment of 847 pupils, and that both the school building itself and the site “have reached fully capacity.”
The report, which was prepared by Cork-based architects Butler Moffat, further states that the existing school has “no space available for further expansion” to accommodate the “long term needs of staff and increased projected enrolment.” A possible further expansion of “circa 25%” was considered as part of the project brief, with the design report stating that the existing site is “too restricted to make any further provision for future expansion of the school buildings.”
The planning application is also accompanied by a detailed Mobility Management Plan which aims to highlight alternative modes of transport to travel to and from Oaklands Community College in an effort to reduce the usage of cars.