Planning greenlit for secondary school in Douglas

A CORK secondary school principal has described his relief after An Bord Pleanála gave the green light to plans for a new purpose-built building for the school on the Carrigaline Road.

The Cork Educate Together Secondary School will be located on a site adjoining Maryborough Woods estate and will cater for 600 students in the catchment area.

The school, which opened in 2016, has spent eight years in temporary accommodation; two years hosted by Nagle Community College and six in St. Luke’s, hosted by Griffith College.

During this time, Colm O’Connor, Cork Educate Together Secondary School principal, said that the students have travelled by bus from the Douglas-Rochestown-Carrigaline area every day.

“It’s very far from where the students live, so they have long journeys, leaving home early and getting home late,” he said.

He explained that the Department of Education bought a site in Douglas in 2017 for a new school building.

Last May, Cork City Council granted permission for the project, but an objection to the plans was subsequently lodged with An Bord Pleanála.

ABP informed the school in recent days that it determined that the “development would not adversely affect the residential or visual amenities of the area, nor would it give rise to the creation of a traffic hazard in the vicinity”.

Mr O’Connor said: “The sense of relief was immense. There were people in tears of joy around the school, and there was a huge roar when the announcement was made on the intercom.

“It means the uncertainty about where the school is going to be is over. We are already 11 years in existence before we set foot in the catchment area.

“We’re relieved, finally there’s a light at the end of tunnel and we can spend all of our time now focused on innovation and inclusion, instead of being distracted by accommodation issues.”

Mr O’Connor said that with the design team in place, the Department of Education can now move to the tendering process, after which time construction can commence. It is anticipated that the state-of-the-art building should now be delivered by September 2027.