Kerry council spent almost €1m on major redevelopment project which was later shelved

Plans for HSE primary care centre and theatre in Killarney rejected by council following public opposition

The €47m Áras Phádraig/Lewis Road theatre and primary care centre project was originally voted through by councillors in February — but voted down months later.

Close to €1m has been spent on a redevelopment project for Killarney which has now been shelved, documents released under freedom of information reveal.

The €47m Áras Phádraig/Lewis Road theatre and primary care centre project was originally voted through by councillors in February — but voted down months later.

The redevelopment of the derelict theatre and HSE primary care centre in an adjacent car park had to go before the public again in April after a technical error by Kerry County Council saw some public submissions not put before the council at the February meeting.

Opposition against the project grew, and more than 160 submissions from the public were received, most of which were opposed the plans.

The opposition centred on the size of the theatre and the suitability of the council-owned site for a primary care centre. There were also concerns about traffic congestion.

About €21m was to be invested in a new plaza and buildings, with €16m to come from the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), €5m from the council, and the remaining money from the HSE for the child and adolescent and adult medical services.

Four years of work went into preparing the proposals by the time it went before the council for full planning, the meeting was told when the second vote was taken in July.

However reversing their original support for the project, councillors said they were elected by the public and the proposal was not what the public wanted — the councillors said as an alternative they would seek a library and administrative offices along with a larger theatre, instead of the HSE care centre.

However, they were told there could be no guarantee the URDF would agree to such a proposal. The investment would have returned a value of €133m, town manager Angela McAllen said. Both Ms McAllen and senior engineer Frank Hartnett warned a new proposal would have to be drawn up.

Kerry County Council has now revealed €867,926 was spent on preparing the rejected plans — which included external consultants' fees and internal staff time.

An estimated full-time equivalent of nine months was put into the project by a senior engineer and a senior executive engineer.

A billboard advertising the flagship project on the Lewis Road, which had to be taken down following the rejection, amounted to almost €868.

In a statement, the council said "planning consent was refused for the redevelopment of the Aras Phádraig site in July. No other options have been considered for this site since then.” 

Discussion with the Department of Housing would be held, it said.

This article was funded by the Local Democracy Scheme