Council say no need for new school on site [fingal-independent.ie]
- Published: 20 July 2011
HUNDREDS of new homes in the Barrysparks area of Swords will not be followed by a new school for the area after the council stuck to its guns saying there was no need for a school on the site.
Late in the day, the Department of Education let the council know that building a new school on a site with high density residential development might be a good idea.
But the council disagrees and the Local Area Plan ( LAP) for a 10hectare site in Barrysparks contains no provision for a school.
The council said the development would have mostly apartments and duplexes rather than family homes and be largely populated by single people and couples with larger family homes catered for elsewhere in Swords. It argued that there are four nearby primary schools and another one proposed for Fosterstown. Council planners also point to three secondary schools close to the Barrysparks site. Planners anticipate the need for five new classrooms as a result of the development but said they could be accommodated by extending existing schools rather than providing a new one on the site itself.
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