MUIRHEVNAMOR FC AT LOGGERHEADS WITH COUNCIL OVER LEASE
CLUB CLAIM THEY LOST OUT ON €120,000 GRANT DUE TO UNACCEPTABLE DELAYS
April 2007
MUIRHEVNAMOR football club is at loggerheads with Dundalk town council over development of its ground adjacent to the sports centre.
The club claims it has lost out on a €120,000 grant because the local authority has not handed over the lease, which was agreed two years ago, after a motion passed at a meeting of the council.
Muirhevnamor also claims it was forced to pull out of the U-18 schoolboys league because the council refused to allow floodlights be used.
In a hard-hitting open letter to town clerk, Frank Pentony, Muirhevnamor FC highlights a number of difficulties encountered in a bid to refurbish the pitch and complete work on new clubrooms.
Muirhevnamor’s Ciaran Bond says ‘Although it has been two years since Dundalk town councillors passed a motion granting the football pitch in Muirhevnamor Park to the club, and almost a year since the clubrooms were constructed, the lease for the land has not been handed over.
‘ These (lease) documents, which we requested on a number of occasions, were a fundamental prerequisite to our recent funding application to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism for a 2007 capital grant.’
He points out, as a result, the club’s application was invalidated because the club has insufficient titles to the land.
Mr. Bond adds that the club was previously granted €249,000 and managed to fundraise €51,000 towards the con- struction costs of clubrooms, floodlight installation, a fence at the southern boundary of the pitch and the building of an alleyway linking the clubrooms to the adjacent sports centre.
‘We were dependent on the €120,000 grant from the department to refurbish the pitch which is about 18 years-old at this stage.’
He continues the club applied to the ESB last July for a supply to the pitch for floodlighting, which they have to pay for, even though the council has not allowed the lights to be used.
Town clerk Frank Pentony says the council is not delaying the handing over of the lease.
‘ The matter is with our solicitor, and I have made efforts to find out what the delay is.
‘We are not trying to obstruct the club in any way, but they must understand that these matters do take time.’
Mr. Pentony goes on that the council obliged the club when they were applying for their first grant of €249,000 by providing them with a solicitor’s level of assurance that they were entitled to the lease on the land.
‘We have no problem doing the same for them if they are applying for a grant again.’
On the floodlight issue, the town clerk says the council had informed the club that they should not have gone ahead with installing the lights themselves as the council had intended to do so as part of the overall park lighting arrangement, which would have represented a saving of funds for the club.