'Tears of joy' as Cork Educate Together Secondary School gets green light for Douglas campus
Cork City Council has granted planning permission for the new co-educational secondary school in Douglas, subject to 37 conditions.
Planning permission has been granted to the Department of Education to build a permanent home for Cork Educate Together Secondary School in Maryborough, Douglas. It was the second application from the DoE, having been shot down by Cork County Council in 2018.
A subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanála in 2019 was upheld.
Speaking to Tripe+ Drisheen, principal Colm O’Connor said there were “tears” when he made the announcement to the students this afternoon. Staff and students have been in temporary accommodation for the past seven years, first in Mahon and then at Griffith College in the city centre.
“I worked out this week how many hours people had spent in temporary accommodation on an individual basis,” Mr O’Connor said, adding that it worked out to a couple of hundred thousand.
“And that’s with no sports facilities or control of the building or you can’t stay after school for extra-curricular activities as people are jumping on buses to beat the traffic and get across the city to where they’re from,” he said.
“If it had gone the other way it would have been devestating,” Mr O’Connor said speaking of the City Council’s decision to grant permission.
In 2022, the DoE went back to the drawing board and submitted new plans which included new access routes for cars, bikes and pedestrians through Maryborough Woods estate as well as set down areas for those accessing the school on the through road which connects Carrigaline Road with Maryborough Hill.
The four-acre site at Ardarrig in Douglas will accommodate 600 pupils at the co-educational school.
Residents’ concerns
At a public meeting held in early May, 2022 in Maryborough Woods estate, residents voiced concerns about how the new school would change the area, especially with the new access route through the estate and the addition of drop off points on the edge of Maryborough Woods.
Both Cork County Council and An Bord Pleanála objected to the first planning application on the grounds that the school access route would create traffic hazards along the Carrigaline Road, a narrow road which is likely to get even busier with new building projects ongoing.
The schedule of conditions, 37 in total, issued by Cork City Council pertain to the construction phase of the new school, access routes, drainage, road markings, bicycle parking, signage, public lighting and much else.
Earlier this year, Douglas and Rochestown Educate Together primary school moved from its temporary site at Garryduff to a new campus on the Carrigaline Road, nearby to the proposed site of the secondary school.
At the public meeting held in 2022, some residents in Maryborough questioned why the two schools could not have been built together on the same campus. Others pointed out that the new school would radically alter the atmosphere of the suburban estate.
Principal O’Connor said that they have met with residents to hear their concerns about the new school.
“We trust in the planning process that engineers and officials assessed their concerns and ensured that the bulk of them are met,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The main thing is that we’ll be open to meeting residents in the future and addressing any concerns as best we can overtime,” he added.
There now follows a four-week period in which appeals can be made to An Bord Pleanála.
Construction of the new school could be completed within 12-15 months according to the planning application submitted by the DoE.