Nightmare scenario for Waterford's €6m 'Field of Dreams' GAA plans

There were suggestions at a public meeting that members and clubs in the Waterford Gaelic Football Association were being “treated like second-hand citizens” on a gender-based approach, by a predominantly male council.

File Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Plans by Waterford Gaelic Football Association (WLGFA) to develop a €6m sports complex have been thrown into uncertainty after it emerged the local authority may de-zone a nearby residential site on which the development is dependent.

Last year the association became the first ladies Gaelic football body to own its own grounds, when it purchased a €330,000, 16-acre site at Ballinroad, near Dungarvan.

The association now hopes to develop a main playing field along with underage, five-a-side and hockey pitches, an eight-lane international standard running track, spectator stand, basketball courts, clubhouse, changing rooms, and car park on the site.

However, the colloquially-named 'Field of Dreams' is dependent on the construction of a strategic housing development, comprising of 176 houses and 46 apartments, on 11 acres at nearby Duckspool.

The Duckspool site is deemed by many to be a high-risk area for flooding and is also a major gathering point for migratory geese and wildfowl.

Nonetheless, planning was granted by An Bord Pleanála to local millionaire businessman and stud farm owner Michael Ryan, but that is now subject to a High Court appeal by ecological interests.

An avid benefactor to WLGFA, Mr Ryan intends to sell the land, if planning is secured, with 70% of the profit allocated to WLGFA’s sports development and 30% to nearby Kilrossanty GAA.

Waterford Council now risks jeopardising that plan by proposing the land be de-zoned in its 2022-28 draft county development plan.

The proposed housing scheme attracted almost 200 objections during its public consultation process, including a submission from Waterford Council, who expressed a desire to designate it for "conservation use".

A public meeting organised by Mr Ryan and WLGFA attracted more than 100 supporters, including representatives of other sporting bodies and parents, but without any councillor present.

Mr Ryan told the meeting that his proposed housing development had already cost him over €3m, but “only a field” would exist if the de-zoning went ahead.

Duckspool project manager Tony Horan of Floton Consulting Ltd, said building the houses at a 3.4m levitation level would negate any flood risk.

There was considerable anger directed at Waterford Council. WLGFA chairman John Frewen said there are 23 clubs and 2,900 members of the association and in sentiments echoed by others, suggested they were being “treated like second-hand citizens” on a gender-based approach, by an all-male council.

In a similar vein, Peter Burke of Dungarvan Hockey Club described the sports facilities available to women as “a damning indictment of society”.

Several speakers from the floor questioned why the council would nullify the Duckspool scheme in the middle of a deepening housing crisis.

With a closing date of April 3 for submissions to the draft county development plan, the attendance was urged to make its opposition to de-zoning a priority and to impress their feelings on all public representatives, but local councillors in particular.

The de-zoning decision is expected in mid-June.