From this week’s Galway City Tribune – An Bord Pleanála has cleared the way for a city secondary school to open up its all-weather hockey pitch for use by clubs around Galway.

The ‘anchor tenant’ at the Dominican College floodlit astroturf pitch will be Greenfields Hockey Club, which described the decision this week as “great news for the school, our club and the future of hockey in the city”.

Under its original planning permission, the hockey pitch could only be used by the school – the Board of Management said it was “unconscionable” that such a facility was not available for community use, as well as for the likes of kids’ football camps during summer months.

In April 2021, the school applied to the City Council for permission to vary a specific condition set down in the planning permission for their pitch, which was granted in 2011.

That stipulated: “The pitch shall only be used by the school for its own activities and shall not be rented out or leased on a commercial basis . . . in the interest of protecting the residential amenity of the area”.

In 2022, the City Council agreed to allow outside clubs use the pitch for a period three years, “in the interest of residential amenity and the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

Despite an appeal from a local residents’ group, that decision has now been upheld by An Bord Pleanála.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the July 7 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.