Plans progress for new neighbourhood park in Knocknacarra
Galway City Council has approved outline plans for a new neighbourhood park for Knocknacarra – which will include playing pitches, playground, community centre and outdoor exercise equipment – with the planning application expected to go on public display before the end of the year.
At a local authority meeting last week, it was agreed to progress the plans for the ‘Kingston lands’ (adjacent to St John the Apostle National School) and the existing pitch at Millars Lane to planning application stage.
Councillors this week welcomed the plan which includes playing pitches, a children’s playground, changing rooms/community centre, outdoor gym equipment, a pedestrian walkway, a two-way cycle path as well as 75 parking spaces.
Overall, the Kingston masterplan was described as “a good news story’ for the area, over twenty years since the idea was first mooted.
The pitch can be used for both GAA and rugby and there will be a multi-use games area.
The plan was shown in the community in April and Stephen Walsh from the Council’s Parks Section told the meeting it was one of the best participated public consultations they ever had. He said the promotion and use of public land was one of the best solutions to anti-social behaviour and that up to 500 children would be engaged in activities at this facility when it was up and running.
A hockey pitch will further be developed at Millars Lane as part of the masterplan.
Residents from the White Oaks/Doire Gheal estate on the Clybaun Road have previously expressed concerns over security and noise, and these issues can be raised again when the ‘Part 8’ planning application is drawn up. The Part 8 process involves the Council effectively applying to itself for planning permission – the plans must go on public display, and submissions and objections can be made, before a decision is made.
Outgoing Mayor of Galway, Cllr Pearce Flannery said it was a much-needed facility for the area on publicly-owned land that was currently waste land.
Councillors further welcomed the announcement that an all-weather pitch at Cappagh Park is almost complete, and Cllr Peter Keane wondered if it could be floodlit.
Mr Walsh said that there was no planning permission for flood lighting for the pitch, but that funding for a Part 8 application for floodlit astro-turf cages, beside the pitch currently under construction, is being sought at the moment.
The Kingston plan, as put forward by Keith Mitchell, Landscape Architect with the Land Planning and Design company, Cunnane Stratton Reynolds was adopted by the Council. The Part 8 planning application for Kingston is expected to be drawn up before the end of the year, and it will be put on public display for a period of six weeks.