Kilmeaden plans to be tourism big cheese

WATERFORD aims to boost leisure tourism and lure golfing holiday-makers to a multi-million euro development in the county.

A major estate in Kilmeaden is to be transformed into a golfing, fishing and leisure retreat to rival Mount Juliet and the K-Club. The ambitious project has received the green light from Waterford County Council and clears the final appeals hurdle this Thursday.

Under the plan, it is proposed to transform the historic 19th century Whitfield Court House mansion at Dooneen, Powersknock, Whitfield North, into a hotel and to build 32 houses, holiday apartments and chalets, a fishing village and 18-hole golf course on its 234-acre estate.

The project, estimated to cost €100m, will provide a major tourism and jobs boost. The leisure complex could create 200 jobs.

Antrim developer Alastair Jackson is the man behind the plan. Mr Jackson’s consortium agreed an option to purchase the estate from international polo player Major Hugh Dawnay and his wife Maria Innes if planning approval was granted.

The mansion and its estate, which were once the seat of the Christmas family who settled in Waterford in the 1700s, were put on the market in 2001 with a guide price of €3.5m.

Due to the size and scale of the development, Waterford County Council has attached 25 stringent planning conditions. An Environmental Impact Statement was submitted to the council by the developer as part of the planning application.

The planning conditions take in traffic safety; waste water treatment; the prevention of flooding; the protection of fisheries; conservation of flora and fauna and the conservation of the mansion, which is a protected structure.

Mr Jackson’s plans for Whitfield Court House, built in 1841, include changing its use from a residential to a 10-bedroom hotel and converting and extending the stables to accommodate a golf clubhouse.

He also plans to build a second four-storey 100-bedroom hotel, which will be of four or five star standard.

The sporting and leisure facilities proposed for the high-class country retreat will include an 18-hole golf course, a two-storey over-basement leisure centre and fishing village with its own stocked lake and two-storey clubhouse and 60 two-storey and three-storey holiday lodges.