Legal challenge hits imaginative town proposals

A LEGAL challenge to an army land sale hangs over a €300 million development which would transform a suburb into a large town.

The series of integrated planning applications being made from today for Ballincollig in Cork is one of the most ambitious building projects proposed anywhere in the country, and will change the face and character of the area over a seven to 10-year period.

However, the €40m land sale agreed by the Department of Defence to developers O’Flynn Construction hasn’t yet closed.

A local resident, solicitor Breandan Ó Conaill, claims a freehold ownership of the army barracks lands.

His case was discounted by lawyers acting for the department earlier this year and while the sale proceeded this far, the legal difficulties haven’t yet been resolved.

However, the developers are pressing ahead with their planning application in the hope the matter will be resolved by the time planning permission comes through within the next 18 months.

The development would provide 817 houses, three large stores and dozens of smaller shops and restaurants plus a hotel.

It would create office and business centres providing for up to 3,000 jobs and would improve civic facilities.

It is the largest and most significant mixed development to date outside Dublin.

The residential plan alone is worth over €200 million.

There are also proposals for new roads and streets, shopping plazas and workspaces, with stores like Superquin likely to seek a foothold in the new town centre.

Overall, there will be an investment of €1bn in Ballincollig in the next decade for a by-pass, other housing schemes, employment and infrastructure, according to the local enterprise board.

As part of the transformation, builders will work on a former 19th century military barracks which runs along one side of the town. The town currently has a population of 20,000.

Developers O’Flynn Construction promise their town centre plan will stop the haemorrhage of spending out of Ballincollig.

There is local spending power of €100m a year, but only €24 million of this stays in the locality, with the rest leaking out to the city and western suburbs.

Instead, the new proposals which are broadly in line with a development masterplan drawn up by the local authority, aim to turn Ballincollig into a true town centre and shopping suburb with an appeal far beyond its own catchment area.