20-acre sports facility near Greystones planned

Wicklow County Council has secured 20 acres of land and a commitment of €3 million in site development works for a regional sports facility near Greystones.

Zapi Properties, the company behind a 1,349-home development at Charlesland between Greystones and Kilcoole, is providing the land for the playing fields, in accordance with the terms of its planning permission.

It has also agreed to lend the council €15 million to build an interchange on the N11.

The company is already paying up to €12 million in development levies towards a new Greystones southern access road, and is building an internal dual-carriageway across its site, as part of its planning conditions.

Under the terms of its planning permission, Zapi, controlled by the builder Mr Seán Mulryan of Ballymore, was required to provide the land for playing fields. However, the cost of draining and levelling the 20 acres for playing pitches was found to be in the region of €3 million to €4 million, provision for which was not covered in the planning conditions or by development levies.

According to Cllr Derek Mitchell, who was mayor of Greystones Town Council when the negotiations got under way, an early offer from the developer involved the payment of about €600,000 in lieu of the 20 acres.

The new access road could be completed in about a year but will not connect the town to the N11, where an interchange proposed by the National Roads Authority (NRA) is still three to five years away.

Because of the uncertainty about NRA funding for the interchange, Zapi has also agreed to lend the authority and the council €15 million to allow construction to start in advance of NRA allocations.

In the meantime, the company is to provide a traffic management plan to minimise the impact that construction traffic is having on the nearby villages of Delgany and Kilcoole.

Work on the new homes, marketed as Charlesland Wood, has begun and the first phase was quickly sold out.

Zapi has also secured planning permission for an industrial estate in the area which will also be served by the new access road. The council has agreed to grant the developer two road-opening licences for which it applied last January.

These are necessary for Zapi to develop roundabouts at Mill Road and near Glenbrook Park, to serve the new homes.

Announcing the deal at the weekend, Mr Mitchell said the sports pitches would be an excellent facility for the youth of Greystones and he was delighted that council officials had stood firm in these negotiations.

"There are still too many houses on the site but at least this agreement means that we can finally get direct access to the N11 and have good sports facilities."