House-building on the educationally-zoned lands of Presentation College, Bray, Co Wicklow, would leave the town seriously short of building land for schools, a Bord Pleanala hearing in Bray was told yesterday.
A number of residents' associations, individuals and community groups have appealed Bray Urban District Council's decision to grant planning permission for a development of bungalows, houses and duplex apartments on a 10-acre site, situated around the former junior school, now a VEC adult education facility.
The developer, Castlethorn, is also appealing the permission on a number of grounds, most notably the reduction in its desired number of 159 residential units to 141.
The secondary school set on a remaining 25 acres of the Presentation Brothers holding will remain as a school. The brothers will also retain the original estate house, a dower house on the Putland Estate which was occupied by the family of the Lords of Putland whose main house less than a mile away is now being vacated by the Loreto Sisters.
The Loreto community also sold land around the school for development before they left the house.
Speaking after the Bord Pleanala hearing yesterday, Ms Annette Hynes, chairwoman of the Putland Road Residents' Association, said land was zoned in the 1993 development plan for education use.
"A hard-to-find aspect of the zoning is that if the educational use of the land is fulfilled then there may be housing on it. But there are two schools in Bray presently looking for land and they have none.
"This is the same issue as the recent houses on Bray Head where Bord Pleanala overturned the advice of its own inspector. That was zoned for educational use. There were schools begging for the land, but it went to housing," she said.
Ms Hynes also said it was ridiculous to suggest that one of these schools, Colaiste Rathin, would be accommodated in the proposed redevelopment of the Bray Golf Club lands adjacent to the Dargle.
"For a start that development has not been approved yet, and it in turn is dependent on the golf club moving to Bray Head at the Greystones Road, which is in turn dependent on planning permission from Wicklow County Council. To suggest that the primary need of educational requirement has been satisfied is just ridiculous," she said.
Mr Tom Murphy, acting town clerk, told The Irish Times, however, that the application came in for a development which was in tandem with the 1993 development plan. "The zoning permitted residential development, we sought the best advice of our and Wicklow County Council staff and commissioned professional and technical reports and granted the permission," he said.
"The appeal is a democratic process which allows the concerns of those affected to be ventilated, and we are content that proper procedure has been carried out," he said.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party TD for Wicklow, Ms Liz McManus, said the experience of objectors to the Bray Head development had caused a crisis of confidence in Bord Pleanala among community groups.
"Here we saw a situation where in effect the people, the objectors who committed their time and money against the professionals, effectively won, but they had the decision overturned on them by the board. If there is to be any confidence in the board on this occasion they must ensure that their rulings are open and transparent."
