Naas school lodge plans to build new all-weather pitch
Artist's impression of the new Naas CBS pitch
A NAAS school is hoping to get permission for a new, €1.5m all-weather pitch within just six weeks if all goes well.
Meánscoil Iognáid Rís (Naas CBS) on Corban’s Lane applied to Kildare County Council last week to build an extensive 120m x 74m all-weather pitch to replace the existing smaller grass pitch, as well as four basketball courts directly south of its campus.
Within the application, the school is looking to surround the new pitch with a 2.4m (8ft) perimeter fence, and ball-stop netting extending from 6m (20ft) to 12m (40ft) in an effort to stop overflights into Lakelands or the Corban’s Lane Boys National School immediately to the west of the site.
The plan also calls for six 18.3m (60ft) floodlight poles, as well as one shorter (6.3m) for the new car parking area.
To power this, the school is also hoping to build a 45kVA diesel generator in a new compound with a 2.4m (8ft) fence.
Another major factor will be the re-alignment of the emergency access road that extends from Tower View into the school, as well as advertising hoardings to surround the new pitch.
While the planned drawing of the new facility shows markings laid out for soccer, rugby and the GAA, the latter will only be able to play underage games here competitively, because at only 120m long, the pitch is too short for full GAA accreditation, which has to be at least 140m long to allow for some space between the two 65s.
So far the planners have written to four statutory bodies – their Environmental Health Officer (EH0), the Department of Education, the HSE, and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) – with only the HAS replying to confirm that it has “no observations to make” as it is outside the remit of their authority.
A GoFundMe page has already been set up to help fundraise, and decision about the pitch is expected as early as 8 March.
