Gorey's dilemma: to keep open space or develop

A proposal to rezone an open space used for recreation and sports in Gorey, Co Wexford, has caused a major political row.

Rezoning the 11-acre showgrounds, close to the town centre, would open the way for residential development on the site and help facilitate rapid growth in the size of Gorey. The town's population is expected to more than double between now and 2007.

The plan is bitterly opposed by some locals, however, who point out that the showgrounds were given to the people of Gorey by the Land Commission in 1937 specifically to be used as a sports field.

The grounds are managed by a four-member trust, which says it needs to sell them to pay off a £120,000 debt arising from a legal action taken against it in the 1990s by a soccer club using the grounds, Gorey Rangers.

The money raised from the sale of the property would be used, according to the trust, to build a sports complex on a much bigger site outside the town.

Its chairman, Mr David Bolger, says this plan will be put to the people of Gorey at a public meeting for approval before it's implemented. Two of the other three trustees, Mr Michael d'Arcy TD of Fine Gael and Mr Lorcan Allen of Fianna Fβil, are members of Wexford County Council, which will vote on the rezoning proposal next year.

The proposal forms part of the Gorey Town and Environs Local Area Plan. Mr d'Arcy and Mr Allen were the only dissenters when Gorey Town Commission voted by seven to two to reject the rezoning proposal at a meeting last week. The commission does not, however, have any say in whether the plan is adopted.

The commission chairman, Mr Malcolm Byrne of Fianna Fβil, claims that Mr d'Arcy's and Mr Allen's dual role as trustees and councillors amounts to a conflict of interest. "They don't benefit personally, of course, but it was put to them at last week's meeting by another town commissioner that there was a conflict, and I would share that view," he said.

Mr d'Arcy referred all queries to Mr Allen, who chairs the committee of four county councillors representing the Gorey area, and to Mr Bolger, the chairman of the trust.

Mr Allen said if the trustees did not pay off the legal bill there was a danger they could be held personally liable. If the site was rezoned and sold more than £1 million could be left to develop a 30- to 40-acre site outside the town for the benefit of all sports organisations.

There was nothing, he insisted, to prevent himself and Mr d'Arcy voting on the issue as council members. Asked if there was not a conflict of interest, however, given that they were both trustees, he said: "You don't let that worry you. That's my problem when the time comes." The other two councillors on the Gorey area committee, which drew up the draft plan in consultation with Wexford County Council's planning staff, are Mr Joe Murphy of Fianna Fβil and Ms Deirdre Bolger of Fine Gael, who is married to Mr David Bolger.

She said she was concerned at the lack of sporting facilities in a town which was expanding at Gorey's rate, and she would like to see a large sporting complex catering for everyone's needs, which the showgrounds could not do. She had had no objection to the rezoning proposal going into the draft plan, but would not make a final decision until she had read all the submissions made to the council on the issue.

The closing date for submissions on the overall plan was last Friday. Most of those received, according to Mr Kevin Redmond, a senior planner with the council, related to the showgrounds. The council planning staff, he said, would draw up a report on the submissions for the council members, who would then decide whether or not to amend the draft plan.

Mr Byrne says he has never encountered "such strong opposition" to any proposal since he was elected to the Town Commission in 1999. People did not buy the idea of an alternative sporting complex as no plans had been produced to show what would be involved, he said.

This view was supported by Mr Paul Sheridan, chairman of the schoolboys' section of Gorey Rangers, which is the current main user of the show grounds. The idea of a replacement sports ground was "just pie in the sky", he claimed.

The need for new development space is spelt out in the draft area plan."The additional population arising from the recent pace of planning permissions granted would indicate that Gorey town and environs' population is expected to expand by 3,441 persons to 7,380. . .

"The design population for the purposes of preparing this plan is therefore taken as 11,000 and zoning provisions will seek to accommodate this future population size."