Master plan for 120-acre Wexford site raises hopes of county developing ‘centre of excellence’ for sports and third-level education
Wexford PeopleWexford County Council (WCC) has provided an update on a project which will see two new schools, a university campus, a football stadium, and a number of housing developments created at Ballynagee on the outskirts of Wexford town.
At the February meeting of the Wexford Borough, county architect Shay Howell presented the latest details on the plans for the 120-acre site, which he said will be “unlocked” by the construction of a new 1.2km spine of road.
“An application to fund the construction of that road is expected to be lodged by the end of this month, it will open up a lot of the development in that area and influence the future zoning of the land,” said Mr Howell.
Currently situated on that land is the Loreto College which has been facilitating “numerous clubs” on its GAA and hockey pitches, a situation which Mr Howell said the council is seeking to rectify.
“We’re working with the school to open up some of the land (to the east) to build new changing facilities, parking and drop down areas,” he said as he updated councillors on the status of the two new schools (Educate Together and Selskar College) proposed for the site. “The design of the schools is still with the architects, they’re not just developing the schools; there’s also going to be sporting facilities, two full-size GAA pitches and a hockey pitch.
"They are preparing documents for planning, however, getting planning and funding for schools is even harder than housing.”
While no timelines have been confirmed for the works, one project which can’t be delayed much longer is the relocation of Wexford FC from their current home in Ferrycarrig. With the existing stadium situated on the proposed route for the motorway between Rosslare Harbour and Oylegate, Wexford FC will hope to move to Killeens prior to work commencing on the N11/N25 project in 2030.
“This will largely be driven by how soon they need to vacate their current site,” admitted Mr Howell. “But Wexford FC’s architects are working on the design of the new stadium and community-based facilities on the site, including pitches which other clubs and sporting organisations will be able to use. The site is significantly sloped so that will create challenges for the design team.”
The new stadium, which will be a six thousand, all-seater venue, has been inspired by a modular build in Manchester which will allow the club to add or remove seats depending on the occasion.
While details were made available for most facets of the project, there were no updates regarding the new SETU site.
To the north and east of the site, 600 new houses will be constructed with active travel facilities and new bus routes. And, in keeping with planning regulations, a new crèche will have to be developed to cater for families moving into those houses. However, with so many childcare facilities built and then left vacant, Councillor Vicky Barron asked whether WCC could intervene to ensure this building was occupied and in use.
“We know there’s a responsibility to include crèches in housing estates, is there any stipulation we can include to keep the costing down for potential purchasers?” she asked.
Cllr Barron also noted a lack of space for those of an artistic dent.
“Surely, there’s space for someone, somewhere, to build a mid-sized theatre. The Arts is being left behind again, could we align with SETU to include a drama course?”
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Explaining that WCC couldn’t interfere with the private market and that any costs associated with acquiring the crèche would be set by the developer, Mr Howell said there were no plans to develop a theatre on the site or, as Cllr Tom Forde suggested, a running track.
“A lot of clubs have spoken to us about acquiring some of the land, but even if we had double the space we still couldn’t cater for them all,” he said.
Responding to a query from Cllr Robbie Staples, the county architect said the community pitches at Wexford FC would be astroturf and “ideally 5G”.
For Cathaoirleach Garry Laffan the fear was, that despite the wide expanses of land involved, the new SETU campus would not allow Wexford to compete with its neighbours.
“That SETU site, at its current size, means we will struggle to compete with Waterford and Carlow. We want people coming here to do scholarships, not sending them the other direction. The next step is to make this even bigger, to create a centre of excellence for all sports and education.”