Disaster hits Curraghmore NS plans

Moves to secure a new building for Curraghmore N.S., were plunged into crisis, when An Bord Pleanála refused Mullingar hurling club, St. Oliver Plunkett"s permission to proceed with the development of their new grounds.On Thursday last, the Mullingar club learned that its plans to build a hurling club facility - and to provide a new school on the site to house the pupils currently attending Curraghmore NS - had been axed by the national planning authority.The refusal of planning permission to St. Oliver Plunkett"s by An Bord Pleanála also has repercussions for Westmeath County Council"s plans to develop the Robinstown area into a new 'sector' for Mullingar town. The multi-million euro sale of the club"s existing lands at Robinstown depended on planning permission being secured.An Bord Pleanála concluded that if allowed to proceed, the development would be serviced by a 'substandard road network', made all the busier by a lack of access by public transport, pedestrians and cyclists.On Monday night of this week, members of the Board of Management of Curraghmore NS held an emergency meeting to discuss the bombshell.Rev. Fr. Michael Kilmartin, C.C., Mullingar said that as all other avenues had been exhausted over the past ten years, the Board of Management will now have to consider seeking a greenfield site elsewhere.'We"ve made three different attempts to secure a site over the years. We can"t develop on the existing school site; at another site we were told by the Council that drainage is too poor for development, and now we can"t go with St. Oliver Plunkett"s,' Fr. Kilmartin told the Westmeath Examiner. 'How do you square a circle?'Fr. Michael said that it was important that the Council consider dezoning land from industrial or residential to provide for education in the eastern reaches of Mullingar.'The reality is we need to find a greenfield site on the Dublin side of the town to facilitate the future educational needs of the area,' Curraghmore NS principal, Michael Molloy said.'The school has 182 pupils, and will be an eight-teacher school next year. We cannot go back on this.'At present, the growing number of pupils at Curraghmore is facilitated by a number of temporary portacabins, with five of them funded by the Department of Education and Science at a cost of €66,000 per annum.However, at the time of going to press, Fr. Kilmartin said that both he and his fellow school board members were at a loss to find out who will 'step in to rescue them'.Reacting to An Bord Pleanála"s decision, St. Oliver Plunkett"s Hurling Club Secretary Conleth McCormack said that while the club is bitterly disappointed, they are keeping their 'heads up'.'We"re more disappointed for the school, and for the local community,' Mr. McCormack said. 'They are the big losers, and we"re disappointed that our plans were rejected on grounds that were arbitrary.'Mr. McCormack said that while the majority of Curraghmore residents were in favour of the plans, he felt that the club had worked hard to address the concerns of the minority, who had appealed Westmeath County Council"s initial decision to grant permission in April 2008.'We will develop our existing grounds at Robinstown as our budget dictates, and carry on with initiatives like the new street leagues,' the Plunkett"s secretary said. 'Having a flagship hurling facility was a nice dream while it was there, but the reality is that €10 million has been taken out of the local economy, and the school has been left with a future that"s less certain.'