Town council purchase of land to benefit entire community

THE recovery, into public hands, of a strategic town centre site in Skibbereen will benefit the entire community, Mayor Adrian Healy pledged yesterday.

The current owners are about to sell the site, known as the Fair Field, for €2.9 million to Skibbereen Town Council. Mr Healy said the council had put a deposit of €190,000 on the property, which had previously been, for many years, in local authority control.

The 2.1-acre site, part of a property still known locally as the mart yard, was at the centre of a bitter High Court row in the early 1990s. Cork Marts, through changes in the Landlord and Tenant Act, secured ownership from the town council for €3,000 and later sold the entire 3.5 acre site for a reported €3.5 million.

The current owners will retain part of the lands where planning permission was granted for 54 houses. The site which the town council plan to acquire has permission for 17 houses adjacent to Mardyke Street. “Social housing and car parking are among the many options for the site,” said the mayor.

“There has been a very positive response from the entire community, especially the business sector, about the town council’s decision to regain the site. People have been coming up with ideas as to how the site could best be utilised. The town council plan highlights the need for improved social amenities such as a cinema, while a portion of the site could also be used as a youth centre facility.”

According to Mr Healy, paid car parking would be inevitable. A survey, similar to one conducted in Youghal, showed the town council could expect a reasonable return on a minimum payment by motorists for a car parking amenity, badly needed in the town centre.

The Fair Field site was first given to the people of Skibbereen in June 1870 by the Rev Maurice Fitzgerald Stephens Townsend when he granted a lease to the then town commissioners. In April 1958, the former Skibbereen urban council provided a lease of the Fair Field to Cork Marts and, in 1965, the livestock sales company acquired further property alongside the site.

Skibbereen UDC, along with a private individual, George Salter Townsend, presented a strong High Court challenge to Cork Livestock Marts when they successfully applied to secure the Fair Field in the early 1990s.