“They just seem to be very much housing at all costs, and everything else later.”
Fingal County Council has granted planning permission for the second phase of a big housing development on council lands on the eastern fringes of Donabate.
The Ballymastone project – the result of a deal between the council, approved by councillors, and the developer Glenveagh Living Limited – is for 1,200 homes built in three phases.
Phase one, already underway, is for 432 homes. Phase two is for 364 houses and apartments.
Council planners gave the nod to Glenveagh Living for phase two on 28 August.
But local campaigners and councillors say they remain worried that much-needed community infrastructure isn’t being built in tandem.
As required, Glenveagh Living submitted a community and social infrastructure as part of its application, done to identify whether facilities like a GP or community centre should be built alongside the new homes.
But the audit included several errors, including the claim that Donabate has a swimming pool (which it doesn’t), says Ann Hogan, the chairperson of DP Crossroads, a local group campaigning for a new performance and arts community centre in Donabate. “It was so flawed it wasn’t funny.”
It is disappointing but not surprising that the council has given Glenveagh the go-ahead for phase two anyway without calling for more community facilities, says Hogan. “They just seem to be very much housing at all costs, and everything else later.”
Fingal County Council did not respond to queries about the decision and the audit.
Glenveagh Living applied for permission for the second phase of the Ballymastone project on 30 April.
Because the proposal was for more than 50 homes, the developer had to carry out a social and community infrastructure audit, in line with Fingal County Council’s development plan.
Glenveagh’s report – done by the consultants Brady Shipman and Martin – examined community, healthcare, religious and recreational facilities in the area, as well as transport links and open space.
The Donabate-Portrane area already has enough community, cultural and social facilities or has enough in the pipeline, to support new residents, the report said.
That appraisal didn’t sit well with locals, however.
They were only supposed to look at facilities within a 1km radius of the site, says Labour Councillor Corina Johnston. But also, “they looked at a parameter of five kilometres.”
This included banks across the Malahide estuary, which were within a 4km radius of Donabate, the report said, although by road, they were 11km away.
Fingal’s Planning Officer noted in their report on the application the complaints that the consultants had looked further than 1km, and that the consultants had justified it because Donabate is on a coast.
Johnston, the Labour councillor, says that wasn’t in line with the development plan, though. “Already I’m questioning what is the purpose of a development plan, if we have an objective and the council is saying okay, it’s one kilometre but we’re going to allow that?”
Among the consultants’ observations was that Donabate was well serviced by a swimming pool in its community centre, which does not exist, and has three GP practices, despite the area only having two.
Neither Brady Shipman Martin nor Glenveagh responded to queries about the audit.
Eleven submissions were made by third parties in response to Glenveagh’s application for phase two, including observations by three local councillors and the Donabate-Portrane Community Council.
Of these submissions, all but one directly referenced the erroneous audit. Fianna Fáil Councillor Adrian Henchy wrote that an independent audit was needed.
Fingal’s Planning Officer report noted the discrepancies, but made no recommendation to carry out a new audit.
“It didn’t make one iota of a difference,” said Hogan.
As well as its social and community facilities audit, Glenveagh submitted a school-demands audit to the council.
This looked at the provision of primary schools within a 2km radius, and secondary schools within a 5km radius, Fingal’s Planning Officer said in their report. “Which is considered reasonable.”
The audit found that phase 2 would generate a demand for around 112 primary school spaces and 73 secondary school places.
In total, the audit found that there are four primary schools within a kilometre of the site.
For secondary schools, there was only one within the 1km radius – Donabate Community College. But the audit also included secondary schools 10km away by road in Rush, and 14km away in Lusk.
It said that the existing schools within the catchment area have the capacity for the extra students, the report says.
Johnston casts doubts on that appraisal. She has been contacted by many families in recent years struggling to secure spaces in primary schools, she says. “I’m dealing with people who’ve moved into Donabate, and they’re onto me, concerned about the schools and creches.”
The council needs to make sure the existing plans for future or expanded schools are sped up, she says. Like, moving and expanding the local Gaelscoil na Mara.
As of the 2022/23 year, the gaelscoil had 53 pupils, says the school-needs audit for Ballymastone.
The school doesn’t go beyond third class, Johnston wrote in her submission. It’s also in a temporary prefab.
But the plan is for it to get a permanent home in a neighbouring development being built in Corballis East, where it would have much greater capacity.
In Corballis East, Aledo Donabate has planning permission for 1,020 new homes and three childcare facilities.
As part of the third phase of their development, and in accordance with Donabate’s 2016 local area plan, Aledo agreed to provide a site for a primary school, with a minimum of 16 classes, before they start construction on house number 301, Fingal’s Planning Officer said in their report.
Fianna Fáil Minister for Education Norma Foley confirmed, back in January 2023, that the Department of Education had agreed to acquire this site.
Johnston, in her submission on the Glenveagh Living application, requested that the council engage with the department so that that transfer of lands is completed, and that work can start immediately.
She has been attempting to apply pressure on the council to speed this up and ensure there isn’t a shortage of spaces, she says.
To meet the demand for school places the council keep pointing to their eventual creation of an educational campus to the east of the Ballymastone lands, which is intended to include another three schools, she says. “But that’s years away.”
Fingal County Council is also planning a recreational hub beside the education hub, with an athletics track, grass sporting pitch, all-weather pitch and a combined skate park and playground.
Still, while more sports facilities are welcome, locals in Donabate need facilities for children who are less sporty, Hogan says.
Donabate’s local area plan, which ran from 2016 to 2020, included among its objectives the provision of a multifunctional cultural centre in an unspecified location in Donabate or Portrane, she says. But there are no immediate plans to build that. “They’re not offering us anything really, at all.”
The council has offered the existing community centre, where space is expected to free up once the library moves to a former credit union nearby, she says.
“But when the library moves out, already they know they’ll be full, those rooms will be used. They have a waiting list,” she said.
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