Major plans for Ballivor church are presented

PLANS to transform St Kinneth's Church in Ballivor into a public library and community meeting room were presented to councillors at the Trim Area Council meeting on Monday.

The €1.8 million project will see the former Church of Ireland church converted into a library with mezzanine level, which will be linked by a glazed corridor to a new building that will include a community meeting room, toilets, kitchen and storage areas. 

There will be an outdoor plaza area incorporated into the plans and a new vehicular access will be provided to the north east of the site to allow for staff parking and for the library van to access the premises. There will be no public parking within the site. The protected graveyard and a large tree to the east of the site will be maintained.

The plans were put on public display on 14th March in accordance with the 'part eight' planning process and will be on public display for eight weeks. A model of the proposed building is on display in Trim Library and the plans can also be viewed at the planning office in Navan. 

Any submissions received will be considered and a planning report will be brought before councillors for approval.

After councillors raised concerns that the plans were not available in Ballivor, it was agreed to look at arranging for plans to be put on display in the village, with the Credit Union suggested, subject to agreement.

St Kinneth's Church was built in 1821 and was in church ownership until it was purchased by Ballivor Historical Society in 1997. They developed an IT training centre at the premises.

In 2004, St Kinneth's was purchased by Meath County Council with a view to turning it into a public library for the area.

County Librarian Ciaran Mangan told councillors that amenity levies have been collected since 2004 towards the projects, amounting to €395,000. A grant of €150,000 was awarded from the social, community and capital scheme and a donation of €35,000 was made by NEC. Further funding will be required to bring the project to completion.

However, Mr Mangan said that sufficient funding was in place to commence the project and that some funding applications had been submitted and others were being prepared.

He said that if all went to plan, they were hoping to commence the project in September of this year.

At the April meeting of Trim area councillors, consultant architects Sheehan and Barry outlined the plans for the site and explained that the area of the existing church is 162 square metres and the extension will be 174 square metres.

Bernard Barry said it was a good opportunity to re-enforce the centre of the town and provide a place for people to meet and congregate. The theme of the design is the integration of old and new.

Colr William Carey said: "I thought they were just going to turn the church into a library. We're getting two for the price of one with a community centre as well."

However, he raised some concerns about the lack of public parking. The architects explained they felt that Main Street was wide enough and there would be sufficient parking. It was also hoped that people would walk to the facility.

Colr Carey said now that plans were under way for Ballivor, he hoped they would also be looking to provide a library in Enfield. He said a building would be coming up when gardai move and asked the council to keep an eye on that.

Colr Seamus Murray said the plans were more elaborate than he had expected and said that he did not want the work delayed because of a lack of funding. He added that people in Ballivor had been very patient and also commented that the people in the community council may have their own ideas on how the existing community centre could be upgraded.

Colr Murray said it was important that people in Ballivor are consulted and that people in the village had done a lot of work prior to the vhurch being bought by Meath County Council. He also said that the plans should be on public display in the local post office or credit union so that people could see them.

Colr Phil Cantwell congratulated the county librarian on the project and asked about the structural condition of the building. He said he was very excited about the scheme and the sooner it was done the better.

He was told that the building was sound, but the floor was poor in some places  and there may be some damp and some problems with flashings. The roof is to be insulated and under-floor heating will also be installed.

Colr Jimmy Fegan said he applauded the architects on how they configured the buildings and showing councillors how they got to the design.

However, he said there was not that much "connectivity between the people of Ballivor and the town of Trim" and suggested that the model visit Ballivor, even for an afternoon. He also said that when the spire was damaged 35 years ago, it had been repaired by the blacksmith who was Minister Noel Dempsey's grandfather.

Colr Peter Higgins said it would be helpful for the plans to be on the council's website as not all people might get to see it if it was on display in the credit union.

He asked why a flat roof had been chosen and the architects explained it was so that the new building would not compete with the old building and to distinguish between old and new.

Colr Higgins said there was a lot of controversy about the old courthouse in Trim because it contrasted so much with the old building, but added that it was a matter of taste. He commented that some people might think the new building extension to the church may look like "shipping containers".

In terms of access, Mr Mangan said the building would be made available to the community and that the space had been designed to be as open as possible to accommodate the maximum number of groups.