Council unveils designs for new community and sports centre near Racecourse Park in Baldoyle

There was a noticeable moment of confused silence among councillors in the meeting room at the Baldoyle Library last Wednesday.

Hans Visser, Fingal County Council’s biodiversity officer, had web-cammed into the Howth-Malahide Area Committee meeting.

He was scheduled to share an update on how the development of the Racecourse Regional Park, a giant greenspace between Baldoyle and Portmarnock, was faring.

The situation hadn’t changed significantly since the last update, Visser said. “The council is still endeavouring to resolve the matter with our consultants in the most appropriate way.”

The council had just sent their proposal to their legal advisors and to the consultants, Visser said. And they were waiting on a response.

“We kinda hope we can now get to a point where we can finalise the matters with them,” he said.

The committee chair, Fianna Fáil Councillor Eoghan O’Brien, asked Visser to elaborate.

“I think just from a couple of the faces in the room here, you might just kinda maybe go back one step and introduce the wider issue that you were reporting on,” O’Brien said.

Given that solicitors were involved now, Visser said, the council didn’t consider it appropriate to discuss the details of the case. It’s sensitive right now, he said.

Again, there was a moment of perplexed silence.

Who was the council in a legal disagreement with? asked Green Party Councillor David Healy.

Consultants, Visser said. “The design consultants for the park.”

This setback disappointed councillors as the upgrades have been on the table since before the start of this millennium.

But, while the park’s overall revamp is in limbo, one council official did confirm that a derelict site on the lands is set to be demolished to make way for a community and sporting centre.

For Y2K

Upgrading Racecourse Park to a regional park has been a long time coming.

Originally, it was going to be called Millennium Park, says Social Democrats Councillor Joan Hopkins, on the phone on Tuesday afternoon. “It was supposed to be open for the year 2000.”

It wasn’t, however, until 7 September 2022 that Fingal County Council submitted its planning application to An Bord Pleanála for approval.

The works set out in their application were extensive. They include new walking and cycle routes with a railway underpass and bridge, a bigger car park, playground upgrades, a skate park, a bowls green and four grass football pitches.

An Bord Pleanála granted permission, with some conditions, on 20 September 2022.

But, as Visser briefed the area committee meeting in early December, he informed councillors that nothing was on site yet.

The only thing that was well underway so far is that Richmond Homes had forwarded the transactional papers for some of the lands neighbouring the current park, he said. “So we’re meeting with our solicitors to go over those things.”

Hopkins, the Social Democrats councillor, said the news that this was dragging on was a disappointment. “We don’t want to go to another millennium.”

What can be done in the interim?

The wire fencing had come down near the southern entrance to Racecourse Park on Friday morning.

Two greyhounds, wearing dark green Barbour-like coats, shot through this collapsed section of the barrier to chase a magpie.

In the distance, their owner shouted for them to heel.

There are broken walls and fallen down fences around the park, which need to be sorted out, Hopkins told the area committee.

“There’s all sorts of things in that park, small repairs, small work from an operations perspective that could make a big difference,” she said.

Her worry was that if there were protracted negotiations and legal issues with the design consultants, that this could go on for years, she said. “Is there anything that we can do in the interim?”

Councillors were waiting for part of the park’s redevelopment to introduce traffic-calming measures on the Red Arches Road, which links to the park on the Baldoyle side, she said.

“If we miss another window, we’re talking at least another year, and it’s really not good enough,” she said.

The council could not yet carry out any small works on some of the park lands owned by Richmond Homes, Visser said. But the council anticipates that those will be transferred quickly, he said.

Visser told Hopkins that, elsewhere, interim works could also be performed. “Certainly within the Racecourse Park, if it’s on lands we own, we can,” he said.

Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh said this situation demonstrated the difficulty of depending on external consultants.

Healy, the Green Party councillor, said that it was necessary to discuss this matter with a more complete report in January. “We can’t have a situation where there’s a delay that we don’t understand and we don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

Vissser replied saying that the council hoped that this situation could be resolved amicably and quickly.

An early Christmas present

On the grounds of the park sits a derelict single-storey building.

It was once a marketing suite, says councillor Healy, speaking on Friday evening. “It was designed by the developers for its own purpose and stated to be turned into a community centre afterwards.”

But in its current form, it was never really fit for that purpose, he says. “And it’s had some damage from a fire, so we’ve known for a while that it needed to be replaced.”

Plans to replace it have dragged though, Healy says.

In August 2017, Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan posted on Facebook that the empty building had been handed over to the council, with €300,000 from its former developer to contribute towards any repairs.

It is an eyesore, says Samantha O’Flanagan, a member of the Myrtle the Coast Residents Association. “The current state of it is terrible. It’s an absolute waste of space.”

But now, Healy says the council is going to demolish the old building, and replace it with a new one.

At the area committee meeting, Pat Boyle, a senior council architect, presented the design for a community and sports centre on the site of the former marketing suite.

More specifically, he said, this will be a purpose-built centre for recreational, educational and sporting activities, with four community rooms, a sports hall, sanitary facilities and a kitchenette.

In the designs shown by Boyle to the committee, he revealed that the building would have a green roof and would be circular to avoid unsupervised hidden corners that may be prone to anti-social behaviour.

Boyle also said changing-room facilities would also be included in the revamp, and new parking spaces for bikes and cars.

The internal pre-planning consultation stage wrapped in early December, with the designs set to be put out for public consultation on Wednesday.

After the period to weigh in is up on 6 February, the area committee will consider a report drawn up by officials on what people said, before the full council votes on the final project on 11 March.

Christmas had come early for the people of Baldoyle, said Healy, the Green Party councillor. “This is something which the community has been waiting for for a very long time.”