Planning approval for Offaly's biggest secondary school project

Offaly County Council has granted planning permission for a new 1,300-student school in Portarlington, which is set to become the biggest secondary school in the county.

The Board of Management of Coláiste Íosagain in Portarlington was granted planning permission this week for the new school subject to 14 conditions.

The application for the new school, which was submitted on July 29 last, proposes the demolition of the existing Coláiste Íosagain school and the removal of its temporary prefabricated buildings. These would be replaced, on a 6.2 hectare site at Kilmalogue, Portarlington, by a part two-storey and part three-storey school building.

The new building, which would cater for 1,300 pupils, makes provision for 48 new general classrooms; 24 specialist teaching rooms; a general purposes hall with ancillary PE accommodation; a library, staff room; administration rooms, toilets and stores.

To cater for students with special needs, the plans also made provision for four special needs classrooms within a 'Special Educational Needs Suite' as well as a special educational needs garden and play spaces. Other outdoor facilities on the site include seven hard play or multi-use games courts, activity courtyards and a grass pitch.

The plans include the use of roof-mounted solar panels and an air source heat pump compound, while the parking provision includes 110 car parking spaces, six of which are accessible, and parking for 120 bicycles.

The planning application was accompanied by a Natura Impact Statement, which was a requirement of Offaly County Council, and the developers sought “temporary and permanent” vehicular access and cycle/pedestrian access onto Bog Road as part of their plans.

The conditions include that a construction traffic management plan should be agreed with the planning authority, and that any damage to the public road during the construction phase be made good.

The conditions attached to the granting of planning permission also stipulate that the applicant is responsible for all damage caused to the public footpath in front of the proposed development and must arrange for any necessary repair works to be carried out.

The applicants must also apply to Edenderry Municipal District for a Road Opening licence for any works to be carried out on the public road or footpath, and that all road openings must be reinstated.

The condition also state that the construction site must be securely fenced along its perimeter, and that no parking for construction workers is permitted “in the existing estate roads/public roads.”

Other conditions relate to the management of water infrastructure, including wastewater and surface water drainage; noise emissions; landscaping and site boundary treatments.

The granting of planning permission for a new secondary school in Portarlington is the second major school development to have received the go-ahead in Offaly within the past month, with Oaklands Community College in Edenderry also being granted permission for a new 1,000 pupil secondary school to replace the existing school, located on Saint Senan's Avenue in the north Offaly town.

The new Oaklands Community College is to be built on a 4.62 hectare brownfield site at Fr. McWey Street, Downshire to the north of Edenderry town centre and close to the Edenderry Shopping Centre, where Dunne Stores in the anchor tenant.

The site is currently occupied by the partially constructed Eden Plaza hotel, which began development in 2007 but was never completed.