School’s decade-long wait for new building may be over

THERE may be light at the end of a long tunnel for a Cork school waiting almost a decade for new accommodation – while children have been taught in expensive prefabs.

A planning application lodged for a two-classroom school in Rathcormac should mean the beginning of the end of Scoil Bhríde’s long wait for a new home, more than three years after the site adjoining their existing premises was bought by the Department of Education.

The school was the subject of controversial comments last summer by Cork East Fianna Fáil TD Ned O’Keeffe who said he would not lobby for the project to be progressed by the department because the people of Rathcormac had not supported him in enough numbers when he was looking for votes in the 2007 general election.

But principal Margaret Howard is only looking to the future now, hopeful that the new school might be ready to open its doors in September of next year.

“We’ve had a lot of disappointments with delays over the years but we’re cautiously optimistic that the project will proceed without any hitches at this stage,” she said.

“The whole community was delighted when we heard the planning was lodged and everyone’s got their fingers crossed that it gets through smoothly,” Ms Howard said.

The original school was built with three classrooms in 1948 but local housing developments, particularly in the last six years, contributed to pupil numbers swelling to the current enrolment of 225 children.

Most of them are being taught in the 10 prefabricated rooms in the school yard but if everything goes to plan they could be moving to the new building in just over a year’s time. The greenfield site is directly behind the existing school but the construction work should be capable of happening without disrupting teaching and learning.

A department spokesperson said the construction time for schools of this size and design is normally a year to 15 months, but funding is in place for the project and it is intended to proceed straight to tendering for contractors once it clears the planning process. If Cork County Council does not require further information, permission could be granted by the end of June but the department must wait another month after that to find out if any third parties appeal a successful outcome.

Any appeals, a refusal of permission or contested planning conditions would mean the matter could be with An Bord Pleanála for about six months longer before tendering could begin.

A report by department inspectors who carried out a whole school evaluation at Scoil Bhríde last November noted that the existing facilities were inadequate for the current enrolment, which has doubled since the last such report in 2002 and continues to increase.