Mayo councillors demand answers on old Westport school site

WESTPORT councillors have demanded answers as to what is happening with the old Scoil Phádraig building after the Department of Education were accused of not submitting a plan for renovation work.

The front of the old Scoil Phádraig National School building on Altamount Street in Westport is currently boarded up with hoardings up to ten feet high and a new vehicular entrance made close to the pedestrian crossing. Complaints were lodged with the planning enforcement office of Mayo County Council after claims the development was unauthorised.

Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn raised the matter at the monthly meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District where he demanded questions as to why complaints about the hoardings were not followed up by the planning enforcement office.

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“We have a situation where there is no planning file in the system and where hoardings have gone up which are over ten feet high and a pedestrian entrance gate has been removed. You now have vehicular access to and from a very busy street to a regional road.

“I made a complaint a number of weeks ago on behalf of a constituent who came to me and I know of other constituents who have made a complaint. I received a response approximately two weeks ago to say the case has been closed. It is phenomenal. Planning enforcement in this county normally takes three to four years before anything happens and yet in this one it can be turned around in the space of three to four weeks,” he said before demanding that Director of Services, Catherine McConnell attend their next meeting to explain the reasons for closing the enforcement case.

The old Scoil Phádraig building was earmarked for the location of the new Holy Trinity National School but those plans were controversially put on hold when the Department of Education outlined their intention to use the building as 'urgent temporary accommodation' for the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Westport.

This decision has angered local councillors who have accused the Department of discrimination against the Church of Ireland school.

“If there is ever a case to be taken for discrimination that is one there,” commented Cllr Brendan Mulroy. “Every single religious group in Westport is fully supportive of Holy Trinity who are an integral part of this town and have been for years and years. They are part of our society and our friends and neighbours.

“I firmly believe that if that was a Catholic school that would not be happening to them. I firmly believe that and it is wrong and will never be right. It is time for the Department of Education to step up to the mark and solve this problem once and for all.”

Independent councillor John O'Malley said that Holy Trinity were given the site by the Sisters of Mercy for their new school and accused the Department of Education of reneging on every promise made to Holy Trinity.

Reneged

“The mistake they made was to hand it over to the Department of Education. When the Department of Education got a hold of that building they reneged on everything Holy Trinity looked for.

“Everything has been worked against Holy Trinity and like a conspiracy or discrimination. If Holy Trinity was allowed to build their school in the beginning we wouldn't be having any of these problems now. It is a pure mess now and it is nobody else but the Department of Education who caused this and it is up to the department to rectify it,” Cllr O'Malley said.

Cllr Flynn also told the meeting that the preliminary enrollment figures of the secondary schools based in Westport show that there were only 33 females enrolled to enter the Sacred Heart School in September.

“The reality is another year like that and the Sacred Heart will be closing and I take no satisfaction in saying that. But if you have another situation where only 10 percent of the total student population is going into a particular secondary school.

“Yet we continue to have this unauthorised development going on down here where no doubt millions are being spent on refurbishing a building which probably will never be used for the purpose that they are carrying out the work and it seems to be facilitated by Mayo County Council,” he said.

Seamus Ó Mongáin, Head of the Municipal District told the meeting that the matter was referred to the planning enforcement department of the council who conduct their own infornation into the matter.