Site secured for new Navan schools campus

THE crisis in Navan schools" accommodation became starkly evident as local area public elected representatives and planners met last week, focusing on the future of the proposed Scoil Naomh Eoin primary facility on the outskirts of the town. In September, Scoil Naomh Eoin, which started life in the Windtown Road area near the swimming pool with 23 pupils in 2003, will have 330 on the roll but the school continues to operate out of a network of prefabs. It is one of 10 primary schools in the St Mary"s Parish area. The Navan Area Council last week supported a plan to materially contravene the town"s Development Plan, dating back to 2003, to designate a site on 12.7 acres where the prefabs currently are to allow the new school to go ahead. A planning application from St Mary"s Parish (in the name of the architects) already has been submitted to Meath County Council which has sought further information. The 12.7 acres site also provides space for a secondary school in the future and other facilities on the campus, to be zoned for educational purposes. The move to designate the site to ensure the school could go ahead arose after members discussed the future of three of the Local Area Plans (LAPs) for the Navan area. Repeated complaints have been made by public representatives about the lack of progress on adoption of the LAPs. The LAPs are statutory documents which go on public display and must go back to elected members for 'signing off'. The members receive a managerial report on any submissions made during consultation. The history of the Navan LAPs is linked to the concerns of councillors, planners and residents that the 'sprawl' of the development boom years in Johnstown should not recur. However, planners have asked the Navan area members to change the status of these planning documents from LAP level to AAP (Area Action Plan) grade. An AAP is not a statutory document, does not go on public display and does not require elected representatives to 'sign off' on it. Some members strongly opposed the change at the Area Council meeting. Sinn Fein member Joe Reilly said there was 'strong disagreement' between some councillors and the planners on this issue. 'Some of us are objecting strongly,' he said. 'We"re very angry that resources were not put in; we spent two years working on this.' It has emerged that the LAPs ought to have been adopted in November 2005, within two years of the adoption of the current Navan Development Plan. Fine Gael councillor, Jim Holloway, stated that the proposal to abandon the LAPs 'as the easiest way to solve the problem' was not in the public interest. 'There has been enough bad planning in Navan as it is,' he said. The LAPs were put in place, he stated, to ensure that the people had their say and that bad planning would be a thing of the past. He blamed the shortage of planning staff to finalise the plans. All members at the meeting favoured ensuring that the school project should go ahead. Apparently, the site was to have been made available to St Mary"s Parish by the landowners at a relatively low price. Navan area member, Fianna Fail"s Tommy Reilly, outlined the urgent need for the school as Scoil Naomh Eoin faced into the new term from September with 340 pupils. Its growth mirrors the huge expansion of population in Navan. Other Navan schools have encountered similar growth. For example, St Joseph"s Convent of Mercy is to have at least 450 pupils from September. Cllr Joe Reilly stated that he had proposed the move to materially contravene the Navan Development Plan to designate the 12.7 acres educational site. Cllr Holloway said he had asked the executive planner present if the plan could be varied to designate the school site as such, so that planning for it could be finalised. However, a plan for some 122 houses and other facilites including shops on the rest of the land was not included in the material contravention move at last week"s meeting. The entire site is some 70 acres in size. Negotiations were under way on this issue at the weekend. Cllr Tommy Reilly appealed to all elected members to meet planners again at area level if necessary to ensure that the matter could be resolved.