Parents seek to stop sale of school sportsground

A group of parents at a north Dublin school is calling on Dublin City Council to stop the sale of the school's sportsground for property development.

The council is tonight expected to ratify a proposal to sell the portion of land it owns at the Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf, to the religious order which is currently renting it for a nominal fee.

The council owns the freehold on about one third of the sportsground and currently rents this portion to the Holy Faith Trust. The remainder of the approximately one acre field is owned by the trust. The council plans to dispose of its interest in the land for €75,000. The order intends to sell the land, valued at more than €3 million, for residential development. The land has not been used as a sportsground for more than four years.

However, according to Mr John Suttle, a spokesman for a number of parents at the school, it is a potential sports facility available to the 600 pupils.

Cllr Gerry Breen, of Fine Gael, said the school needs the money for its €2.9 million redevelopment programme and that the principal, board of management and the parents' association supported the sale. Parents' association chairman, Mr Seán Molloy, said a feasibility study had found that the lands were not suitable for playing fields.