Rovers get go-ahead for new stadium

Eleven years after they left Glenmalure Park, a new era dawned for Shamrock Rovers yesterday when it was announced that the club's application for permission to establish a new home in Tallaght was granted by An Bord Pleanala.

A total of 19 conditions were attached to the decision of the body to uphold South Dublin County Council's decision to grant planning permission for the stadium, which is to be built in Sean Walsh Memorial Park, just across the N81 from the Square shopping centre. However, at the club's headquarters yesterday there was delight that, after more than a decade in the wilderness, the Hoops finally appeared to have a future again.

"I don't know what would have happened to us if the news had been bad today," said club general manager and secretary, Pat Byrne. "This is fantastic, though there'll be a lot of very hard work to be done over the next few months to get things started out there - but we won't mind that, the club has a home of its own again and nobody minds putting in the hours on their own place, do they?"

The decision by An Bord Pleanala to allow the development to proceed was not greeted by everybody with such enthusiasm. A number of local residents' groups campaigned vigorously to have the club allocated a different site in the area and Fintan Lyons, chairman of the Tymon and Bawn Community Association, expressed the feelings of some of those who oppose the proposals.

"We're very disappointed," he said, "devastated might be putting it a little strongly, but extremely disappointed. We're at a loss as to why An Bord Pleanala has approved this. It flies in the face of planning practice for new towns around the world, which is to put this sort of development on the edge of built-up areas. Instead, they're going to plonk this stadium in the middle of one where there is a totally inadequate road network."

While Lyons says that it is likely to take his and the other associations in the area several weeks to decide what, if any, further action is now open to them, Byrne appealed to all of the residents groups to work closely with the club over the coming months.

"My understanding of the situation is that any challenge through the courts would have to focus on some technical aspect of the procedure that wasn't carried out properly and as far as I'm aware everything was done as it should have been," he said.

"We don't want to upset anybody in Tallaght. We've tried to do everything we could over the last 18 months or so to help sort out their objections. If Tallaght is going to be our home, then we want everybody to be happy."

In fact, Rovers will be aiming to win over their new neighbours over the next few years in the hope of restoring those parts of the proposed development which were sacrificed over the course of the planning process.

Originally envisaged as a 10,000 capacity, all-seater stadium, with an athletics track around the football pitch (this latter feature was dropped at the club's request), the current scheme provides for a capacity of 6,000 - just 2,000 of which will be seated in the early days.

Included in a total of 19 provisions laid down as part of yesterday's judgement are an obligation on Rovers to provide car parking facilities for 800 vehicles before the stadium is used, restrictions on the times when the ground can be used for games - aside from Saturdays and Sundays just six games can be played in midweek - and an order that no special events such as concerts may be held there without the granting of separate planning permission.

Nevertheless Byrne remained euphoric about the outcome and said that he expects work to commence on the site within a matter of weeks, with the club hoping to be in a position to start playing there within the first couple of months of next season. "It'll be pretty basic at first, but we're looking at the sort of development carried out on the stand at Parnell Park. That took 22 weeks and the access here is better, so we'd hope to have it done even more quickly than that. In the longer term it should be one of the best grounds in the country."