Double joy for Kanturk as school and road go out to tender
SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS MADE IN BOTH PROJECTS
THERE was good news, on the double, for Kanturk this week with the announcement that the long-awaited amalgamated new national school and relief road have both moved a significant step closer to ‘ boots on the ground’.
With regard to the new primary school, it has been confirmed that the tender process for the project has been completed and a preferred bidder identified – though, not without a little controversy.
It is now hoped construction work, which will take between 14 and 18 months to complete, will finally get underway before the end of this year.
Meanwhile, long suffering car users, who have been held up by traffic in Kanturk, will be relieved to hear that the long-awaited Kanturk Relief Road is a step closer after it was confirmed this week that the €827k contract for its construction will be out to tender within two weeks.
IT has been the subject of much heated debate in Kanturk and at Cork County Council level for many years.
Now there is finally light at the end of what has been a long and convoluted tunnel towards a new primary school in Kanturk, with the news that the contract for the multi-million project is to be awarded within the coming weeks.
This was after Cllr John Paul O’Shea (FG) revealed he has received written confirmation from outgoing Education Minister Joe McHugh that the tender process for the project has been completed and a preferred bidder identified.
It is now hoped that construction work on the new school, which will take between 14 and 18 months to complete, will finally get underway before the end of this year.
While a proposal to amalgamate St Colman’s Boys NS and the Convent of Mercy NS into a single complex was first mooted by the Department of Education as far back as 2001, a planning application for a 24-classroom school on the 2.3-hectare greenfield site at the Mill Road was not lodged with Cork County Council until 2012.
The following year, much to the disappointment of locals, the proposal hit a major stumbling block after it was refused planning permission over concerns regarding vehicular and pedestrian access and the potential for flooding at the site.
In February 2015, a new application for a 16-classroom school on the site was lodged with the authority and given the green light the following November with 26 conditions, one of them relating to the construction of a road and/ or footpath linking the site with Upper Bluepool.
The OPW, in their capacity as agents for the Department of Education, lodged an appeal against the condition claiming it was “unreasonable and unenforceable.”
“The applicant does not consider this condition to be appropriate as it refers to lands outside the control of the applicant and where the co-operation of a third party is required,” they wrote.
In late 2016, Cork County Council subsequently agreed to provide a budget for the purchase of lands for a link road to Bluepool Upper and the upgrading of the storm sewer near the entrance to Market Place/Strand Street paving the way for the school.
However, since then the lack of progress on the project has caused much frustration locally, resulting in much heated debate at council level over the timetable for the project.
Cllr O’Shea said it was his understanding that final discussions between the OPW, who are managing the project, and the preferred bidder are at an advanced stage.
“I know how important this development is for our Town, and I will do my utmost to ensure that this School proceeds to construction as soon as is practically possible during 2020,” said Cllr O’Shea.
“The new school will be a modern, state-of-the-art home for education in Kanturk and will be of enormous benefit to the local area.”