Mixed views on Blackhall site for swimming pool

There was mixed reaction to news that the proposed €75 million regional sports centre may be split between Robinstown and Blackhall, Mullingar, at the May meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Some thought it was the ideal solution, others that it would never work.

Cllr Emily Wallace said “€75m is an eye-watering amount of money, but Mullingar is in dire need of a swimming pool”. She felt that Blackhall was an ideal location, but there would have to be consultation with local businesses and residents. She asked if a multi-storey car park could be provided and how it would be financed.

Cllr Wallace asked that the facility at Blackhall include an exhibition or concert hall space as the fleadhanna showed the town can provide music venues. She proposed that the project be put on the agenda every quarter to show how committed the councillors are that it go ahead.

Cllr Aoife Davitt, who is on the Mullingar Pool Action group along with Cllr Wallace, said: “These facilities are badly needed in our town and I think a lot of people would be willing to compromise.”

To be able to walk to the facility would be great for schools that would be saved the expense of getting buses to Robinstown, she added.

Cllr Davitt was worried that parking spaces might be lost in Blackhall during and after the build. She urged that the junction at Joli be reviewed. Heavy volumes of traffic will use the area and a traffic management plan would be needed.

“This is a game-changer in Blackhall and, if it has to happen, the whole traffic management plan has to be completely torn up,” said Cllr Ken Glynn.

He said businesses and homeowners and everyone affected must be consulted. He was also worried that parking spaces would be lost and pressed for the town centre to be supported.

Cllr Andrew Duncan asked if it was intended to go for planning on both sites at the same time. He wondered how realistic the project was now.

“That €75m has thrown a spanner in the works,” he said. “I anticipated a significant sum, but that is an extraordinary amount of money to have to pay back.”

What sort of funding can realistically be accessed from the Urban Regeneration fund and from the sports funding, he asked.

“If we cannot unlock serious funding, I would be nervous that this project will just grind to a halt.”

Cllr Bill Collentine said splitting the project between two sites will “never work”. We need space to expand and we need to cater for all our sports. Having it in town would choke up the town centre and Robinstown isn’t that far out, he said. Other towns have these facilities – Tullamore, Athlone, Portlaoise – and we need to push it on and future proof it, he said.

“We need a new swimming pool and it should be in Robinstown,” Cllr Collentine continued.

He said €75m was not a high price for what is proposed, considering that a large house in town costs half a million euro. “We’ll never get a second chance or the second place to build the second half of it,” he warned.

Regional centre, not just Mullingar

Cllr Denis Leonard emphasised that it is a regional sports centre, not just for Mullingar. “You have to think that this location is going to look after a variety of sports from a massive region and it must be future proofed,” he said.

“The money we spend now on this is going to seem small in 10 years’ time. The space we are planning to build on now is going to seem small in 20 years’ time,” Cllr Leonard stated. “Let’s build a state-of-the-art facility. Think big. A lot of other parts of the country have thought big and ended up with a large project because they sold it as a regional centre.”

Cllr Frank McDermott was bitterly disappointed to see the executive’s inclination towards Blackhall simply because of regeneration funding. “In five or 10 years, it will be a different picture. I would go for Robinstown, hell for leather, amen,” he stated.

Deirdre Reilly, director of services, said the €75m is of a scale that is appropriate to Mullingar.

She said: “All these facilities are required. We need an eight lane, 25m pool with additional training pool and associated facilities, the gym, the sports hall, which can be used for sports and events, and we need the outdoor facilities and pitches and the premises for boxing.”

She said the council intend to go for planning for both sites together, as it is the same project on two sites. Ms Reilly acknowledged the members’ comments about parking and traffic management. “All of these things will come out while we are going through the design process. I can’t give any guarantees today about how we are going to resolve those issues because they are part of a process,” she said.

She went on to say it was important that future discussions on Robinstown with the other sporting bodies involved, about working together to provide greenfield sites.

“The consultant has just started the site selection process and let’s see how that goes and we will come back to you to talk about pros and cons of the site selection, because it talks about Robinstown, Blackhall and other sites identified,” Ms Reilly said. She agreed that it should be on the agenda quarterly.