Developer says it doesn’t need to build new community facilities along with housing at big Donabate scheme, as there’s already plenty

The woman at the reception in Donabate Community Centre paused when, on Tuesday morning, she was asked if there was a swimming pool in the building.

“No,” she said.

In the summer of 2022, there had been an indoor pop-up pool. But that was temporary, she said.

“No pool in Donabate,” said the woman. “Two beaches, but no pool.”

A recent audit of community and social infrastructure, submitted as part of a recent planning application for developer Glenveagh Living Limited, said otherwise.

Planning applications to develop more than 50 homes have to include these kinds of audits, according to Fingal County Council’s development plan. They need to look at shortfalls, and what might be needed as neighbourhoods grow, it says.

The audit for phase two of the big project at Ballymastone, a townland on the eastern outskirts of Donabate, concludes that it does not need to make space for new facilities. There’s a range of social and community infrastructure in the Donabate-Portrane area, and in neighbouring towns like Malahide, Rush and Lusk, it says.

Ann Hogan, chairperson of DP Crossroads, a local campaign group, said it’s not just the mythical swimming pool that undermines the report.

It oversells Donabate’s facilities by extending its scope beyond the 1km radius that it is supposed to look at, says Hogan. “If it demonstrated the deficiencies, the onus would be on them to actually provide this infrastructure.”

Fingal County Council and Glenveagh Living Ltd said they couldn’t comment on the audit as it is part of a live planning process.

At Ballymastone

Glenveagh Living are set to deliver around 1,200 homes at Ballymastone, on 28ha of what has been council-owned land.

The deal was voted on by Fingal County Councillors in May 2021.

The council’s vision, said a report at the time from senior executive officer Aoife Sheridan, was for an “exemplar sustainable housing development in tandem with the provision of community, recreational and educational facilities”.

The homes would be split – 20 percent would be social, 20 percent would be “affordable purchase” and 60 percent would be private-market homes, the report said.

(It also said that the “affordable” homes had guaranteed prices of €250,000 for a two-bed house and at €270,000.00 for a three-bed house. But those have been revised, with recent adverts showing the early ones for €299,000 to €345,000.)

One of the largest developments in the country, the first phase is 432 homes, alongside a creche, open play area, two small parks and two pocket parks, according to planning documents.

Construction on phase one started last August, said a council press release.

On 30 April 2024, Glenveagh put in a planning application for phase two. That envisages 364 new homes, with two small parks and a pocket park.

It’s a welcomed development, says Hogan, the chairperson of DP Crossroads, a group pushing for a new community and performance arts centre in Donabate.

“But what we are saying is, let’s have the houses, but do it as phased development in tandem with community infrastructure,” she said.

A closer look at the audit

The community and social infrastructure report, filed as part of the planning application, is supposed to work out whether the area has enough community facilities.

The Ballymastone audit looked at: community, healthcare and religious facilities, transport links, and open space, leisure and recreation.

Its conclusion is that the Donabate-Portrane area, as well as Malahide, Rush and Lusk, possess a wide range of physical, cultural, and social facilities, the report says.

“We submit that there are established and yet to be delivered community facilities which will meet the demand created by the future residents of the proposed development,” it says, pointing to the council’s recreational hub which is planned nearby.

But that has stoked confusion among locals, because it doesn’t seem to match up with what is actually in Donabate, says Hogan. “I thought somebody had written it in the dark, because there were a lot of factual errors.”

The chief error is the claim that Donabate’s community centre has an indoor swimming pool, Hogan says. “We don’t.”

There isn’t even a municipal swimming pool in Fingal.

The report also says that Donabate has three GP practices: the Donabate Family Medical Centre, Donabate Clinic and the HSE-run Donabate Health Centre.

But it only has two, Hogan says. “And of them, they’re not taking new patients.”

Donabate Health Centre doesn’t have a GP practice, she says. “So there is a deficit immediately, because people will have to leave the peninsula to access GP services.”

Donabate Clinic, the Donabate Family Medical Centre and the Donabate Health Centre did not respond to queries about the current level of access to GP services in Donabate.

And, in its audit of community facilities, the nearest financial service that the consultants identify is the local post office, Hogan says. “But the ATM was recently removed.”

In line with the council’s development plan, the audit should assess infrastructure within 1km area of the site, says Corina Johnston, a Labour local area representative. “The concern with this report is that they also looked at a 5km catchment area.”

The nearest banks – Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and AIB – are all across the estuary in Malahide, the report says.

Those banks are roughly within a 4km radius of Donabate, the report says. But by road, they are each approximately 11km away.

The audit mentions that Donabate is a coastal community so, it says, they had looked also at a radius of 5km. Glenveagh Living Ltd and the consulting firm Brady Shipman Martin did not respond when asked for more detail on why this radius was widened.

Hogan has her own suspicions. There wasn’t enough community infrastructure within a kilometre of Ballymastone, she says. “They extended it to 5km and included all these additional facilities.”

“But you can’t walk to them within 15 minutes,” she says. “So you’re pushing them into their cars to access basic services, which is just nuts.”

What is needed?

The council is set to deliver on pieces of community infrastructure in Ballymastone that were flagged in the Donabate Local Area Plan (LAP), 2016 to 2020, including an athletics track and a skate park.

These will be features of a €10 million sports and recreational hub to be developed by the council. It will also boast all-weather pitches, according to a council presentation from July 2021.

The LAP also identifies the need for a swimming pool.

It also highlights the need for a multi-functional indoor community facility, says Johnston, the Labour representative. “And that is not being provided.”

Hogan, of DP Crossroads, says the peninsula has no shortage of sporting facilities. But it needs GP offices.

And, “we are pushing very strongly for a dedicated cultural and youth centre, because while there is a lot of sporting provision, there’s really nothing for other interests or activities”, she said.

In early January, local councillors asked Fingal County Council if such a facility could be delivered on lands within the Ballymastone-Corballis area.

But, the council didn’t indicate that this was a likelihood.

Donabate’s library is currently in the existing community centre. But the council plans to move the library to the old credit union building on the Portrane Road, and so free up some space in the community centre, said Aoife Sheridan, a council senior executive officer, at the time.

Realistically, that bit of space isn’t going to be sufficient, says Johnston. “That’s only giving back the space that we had 10 years ago, but with a much bigger population now.”