€10m courthouse is close to completion
WORK on Wexford’s shiny, new courthouse is due to be completed at the end of November, however, an official date for its opening has yet to be announced.
The courthouse, built on the site of the old municipal buildings in Wygram, cost in the region of €10 million to build and will set a new standard for court facilities in Ireland.
In 2010, the OPW was granted planning permission for the court complex, which will extend to almost 5,000 square metres. Built as Tate School in 1867, the Municipal Buildings in Wygram became the headquarters of Wexford Corporation from the 1950s to 2007, when the 1.5-acre property was sold to the Courts Service for €3 million as a site for Wexford’s courthouse.
The refurbishment of the old landmark municipal building and the modern extension, which dwarfs it, includes four courtrooms, custody facilities, court offices and associated facilities.
Courtrooms which will be enabled for video-conferencing, digital recording, and electronic display of evidence.
tHE Courts Service said it features ‘first class consultation rooms and waiting areas, modern and various sizes of courtrooms and facilities for jurors will be provided,’ while there will be accommodation for witnesses, victims, and ‘which will be greatly enhanced in terms of privacy, security and comfort’.
There will be dedicated facilities for barristers and solicitors and the media.
The main entrance to the building is opposite St Ibar’s Villas while there will also be a entrance gate at Davitt Road North to cater for prison vans entering and exiting the grounds.
The courthouse project were ahead despite objections from from some local residents in the mainly residential area of Wygram who said it would change the whole dynamic of the area and as the largest courthouse in the country outside Dublin is totally out of scale for the locality.
The Wexford courthouse was built part of a Courts Bundle Public Private Partnership project for the building of four new courthouses and the redevelopment of a further seven regional courthouses by contractors BAM.