Village Socio-Economic Hub; Access Road, Car Park & MUGA pitch

In 2017 it was proposed to develop an off road parking area for the school and an access road to the community field behind the school. The land is a community asset, owned by the community having been purchased by the community development group in 2000. The long term objective was to have safe parking, set down and turning area for the school traffic, access to the field behind the school and a full size playing pitch to the rear of the school for school and community use as well as a purpose built childcare facility and a MUGA pitch.

LCDG commissioned a traffic survey on traffic passing the school in February 2017 to gather data on traffic volumes, speeds and impact of the lack of school parking on school going drivers and pedestrians as well as other road users. In 2018 Galway Co. Co. required a separate road safety (stage 1) audit to be carried out as part of the planning application. The results proved the safety concerns that had been expressed by the community and the need for the off road parking and road improvements generally to improve safety in the area.

An access roadway, paths & car-parking services in this area will make this community asset safely accessible to all the community allowing for setting up pre-school/after school services & rural youth facilities which are severely lacking in the village and surrounding area at present. Safe access to this area encourages construction of a socio-economic educational hub that would cater for children, teen and parents needs whilst creating employment and promoting the village as a very attractive area to live in as a Satellite Commuting Village to Galway and Athlone. Creation of a safe access point at this community field will hugely enhance the village from a tidy town’s perspective.

We successfully achieved planning permission, completed the procurement process, applied for and were granted E260k in grant funding from CLAR, Town & Village Renewal Scheme, and LEADER, held an OsKaRs fundraiser (Craggy Island OsKaRs) raising €62k, a monster auction in the village raising E42k and E20k through smaller fundraisers. Work began on the site before Christmas 2018 and finished in September 2019. This first phase saw the access road, school frontage, car park, MUGA pitch, paths, energy efficient lights and drainage all completed.

We are currently in the process of applying for planning permission and funding for the village childcare facility which will be a purpose built facility for our existing ECCE preschool and will also offer afterschool services. We hope to have this part of the project open by September 2020.

Through our consultation with Galway Conservation Volunteers we also have an interesting biodiversity plan for the finished layout which will be outlined in the biodiversity section of this application.