Council sale of playing field angers rugby club

WICKLOW COUNTY Council has caused outrage and disappointment at Greystones Rugby Club where the local authority has fenced off part of its grounds and offered it for sale as a “commercial opportunity”.

The club, which says it trains up to 700 junior players each week, disputed the council’s assertion that its committee had met council officials and had raised no difficulty over the sale.

The site in question amounts to about 1½ acres. Greystones Rugby Club has been using part of it for training players for more than a decade, having rehabilitated the land after it was used as an unofficial Traveller halting site for some years previously.

The land is located between the rugby club and the local GAA and tennis clubs, in an extensive stretch of sporting facilities encompassing all-weather football pitches, a driving range, a golf club, a beach, a new purpose-built gym, a sports hall and public swimming pool, as well as the nearby Charlesland Recreational Park with a separate range of facilities.

The combination of sports facilities was said by local councillors to be a significant factor in the town’s winning of first place and a gold award at the International Awards for Livable Communities (Livcom), held in China in 2008.

The site is designated “T2 – village centre” in the Greystones/ Delgany local area plan, which would support retail, residential and office use. The asking price is €1.5 million.

Wicklow County Council said the rugby club was “very aware from the start” that the club did not own the land and had been asked on a number of occasions over the last decade to fence the land to show demarcation of the council’s ownership.

Council spokesman Des O’Brien said, following the failure of the club to fence the land, the council decided to fence it and offer it for sale. Mr O’Brien recalled the site had been rezoned for commercial use “probably as far back as 2005”.

He said the club had been facilitated with regard to the sale to it of additional land south of the clubhouse for the creation of additional pitches. The council had also rezoned land the club owned elsewhere, at Farrankelly, in a move which he claimed had netted the club additional cash.

The council also maintained that the club committee had been told of the plans and had raised no difficulty.

However, following the fencing of the site and the erection of auctioneer signage seeking expressions of interest, Greystones Rugby Club placed banners on adjacent fencing, calling for the land to be kept in recreational use.

Donall Gannon, chairman of Greystones Rugby Club, said the members were mystified at the council’s action.

He told The Irish Times there had been no meeting with Wicklow County Council officials to his knowledge and any suggestion “that we are sanguine about this” was incorrect.

He said the club, which has been in existence since 1937, had employed the land “for social, amenity and club usage. We can’t understand why Wicklow County Council, which owns a lot of land around Greystones, has not decided to sell any other piece of land, but this. We are very disappointed.”

Mr Gannon said the club had been treated “just like anyone else” in relation to selling its additional pitches at Farrankelly when they were required for road building and housing and had poured all its money into facilities for use by the people of the town.

The club was not in a position to pay the council for the land, he added.

The club is now lobbying local area councillors, as the consent of elected councillors is required for disposal of council-owned land.