Heated row over choice of new Kells school site

Kells area councillors engaged in heated exchanges about the proposed Eureka secondary school site this week as Fine Gael councillor John Farrelly said it was time Fianna Fail TD Johnny Brady explained why he wanted it located at Cavan Road, contrary to the view of planners and most councillors. A letter dated 7th October from Martin Shiels, assistant principal with the sites acquisitions section of the Department of Education in Tullamore, to Liam Henry director of services and planning at County Hall, Navan, says the department had acquired an 11-acre site on the Cavan Road under the terms of the Redress Board which was currently zoned industrial. It carried out a technical examination there and now viewed it as the optimum site for the new Eureka secondary school. He requested the county council to zone the lands concerned for educational purposes. Kells area manager Brendan McGrath said he intended to respond to Mr Shiels, stating the county and town councils" preference for retaining the current schools campus on the Navan Road, as incorporated in the Kells Development Plan, adopted a year ago. It was accepted that the Cavan Road site could be acceptable but the council sought comprehensive pre-planning discussions with the department on this. If the department chose to proceed with a planning application, this would require a material contravention of the town plan. Both proposals were reserved functions of councillors and he urged Mr Shiels to schedule a pre-planning meeting to begin the process. Cllr Farrelly queried the size of the Cavan Road site, which had been variously described as 9.6 or 11 acres. Planners had told them such a school would require at least 12 acres, and had indicated their preference for the larger Navan Road site. A fourth school was already under construction in that area, he said. He claimed there had been outside influence on the Department of Education since by Deputy Brady, who had been 'working tirelessly' to reverse the council"s decision and had got the Education Minister to overrule officials in his department. The Hurdlestown councillor said he had 'no problem' with the Cavan Road but Kells needed long-term planning, not the 'quick-fix solution' of a particular politician. Deputy Brady was not a councillor but he had been influencing members after their vote, getting the original area council vote reversed, said Cllr Farrelly. Cllr Michael Gallagher demanded representatives from the Department of Education meet them to explain a site which planners did not favour. It was a case of too many politicians and not enough councillors, said Cllr Brian Collins. Deputy Brady had not sat through the 120 hours area and town councillors spent on the Kells Development Plan and he had not heard the safety, residential concerns, surrounding industrial and retail developments considered in choosing the Navan Road over the Cavan Road sites. Having children dropped at schools at both ends of the town just as the M3 was removing most through-traffic in Kells would make them a 'laughing stock', he predicted. Cllr Michael Lynch said he accepted the full council"s overturning of the area council"s revised decision, and he accepted Mr McGrath"s reply. He did not want to see any more referral to the department 'and maybe the scrapping of (the new school) altogether'. Departments were delighted not to have to spend money where communities were divided, he said. Deputy Brady had been adamant where he wanted the school sited, and both Eureka"s board of management and parents" council had lobbied for the Cavan Road. Members should not stymie progress which could delay the project for 12 months, he said. Cllr Eugene Cassidy said planners had recommended the Navan Road, having looked at both sites and even the Department of Education had indicated support for it. Every other country kept schools together in the interests of best planning practice, and this was being done in Navan, he said. Chairman Cllr Bryan Reilly said Eureka parents, board of management, teachers, students and the Department of Education wanted this issue resolved as quickly as possible - that was why the Cavan Road site was back on the agenda. It had been judged suitable by planners and the department when first proposed. Cllr Farrelly said FG wanted the right thing done for school planning in Kells well into the future and did not think a 9.5 acre site would be cost-effective. The Cavan Road site had been with the Redress Board since 2001 and it took seven years to get its transfer, so 'we missed the boom'. He queried 'where the pressure is coming from to have this land developed - from the community or from people with similar zonings in the town? I"m getting very suspicious', said Cllr Farrelly. Amid sharp exchanges between councillors Reilly and Farrelly, Cllr Collins said any school planning application would 'undoubtedly' meet objections, and would probably end up going to Bord Pleanála. He noted the engineering report describing the Cavan Road site as 8.6 acres. Mr McGrath said he rejected any suggestion that a year had been lost since the development plan"s adoption. He had been constantly in touch with the Department of Education where there had been a 'huge turnover of staff' in the building section. The 7th October letter was the first formal correspondence it had sent, after numerous phone calls, he said. The only reason the Cavan Road site arose was through the generosity of the late PJ Monaghan, who handed it over for such use but it was 'only now because of the evil of a small number of religious, that it is in State hands', said Cllr Collins. That had little to do with what was before them, said Cllr Reilly. The site would be considered even if it was in private hands, he added.