Astro pitches awarded to Tuam Celtic as planning thwarts school's bid

By JACQUELINE HOGGE TUAM is to receive two community all-weather, astro-turf pitches by the end of the year following the decision to award €180,000 in funding to Tuam Celtic Football Club for the project. The club received official confirmation from Galway County Council that their bid for the grant had been successful last week as its application was deemed superior to the only other interested party, St Patrick's Primary School in the town. The club will now enter negotiations with the council to tie down a lease agreement over the next ten days. Celtic had the edge Director of Services for Corporate, Housing and Emergency Services Eugene Cummins said both applications had been of the highest standard, but that Tuam Celtic's submission had the edge. 'There were a number of factors that determined the outcome of this process, but given that Tuam Celtic met most of our requirements including accessibility, available lands, planning permission and floodlighting, meant theirs was the successful bid,' he said. [private] 'There were many merits to the school's application but given that it didn't have planning and this may have been difficult to secure given its location in an architectural conservation area, could have posed problems. 'Either way, Tuam is the big winner here as we now have a mechanism in place to build and run two all-weather pitches for the community.' Tuam Celtic Chairman Bart Gormley said everyone at the club was over the moon with the decision and that all efforts would go into ensuring a lease agreement was in place by the deadline of March 31. 'We're very relieved the decision has been made in our favour and we're now concentrating on meeting with council officials on March 29 where we will hammer out a lease,' he said. St Pat's principal Steve Lane said the school wished Tuam Celtic well in the development of their amenities but added that the parents of children attending the school were devastated at the decision as they felt their application had been the better one. 'If these pitches had been located here on our site, Tuam Celtic members would have used them, but the fact they will now be sited at the club's ground means the schools won't use them,' he said. However, Bart Gormley insisted the provision of all weather pitches at the club would make a massive difference both to members and other groups in the town. 'These astro-turf pitches will also help to prolong the playing surfaces of the pitches we have and while they may be located here they aren't ours, they are for the entire town and we're confident as many other groups as possible will use them once they're installed,' he said. Train year-round 'For our members it will mean we can train together year round, instead of the current situation where groups are having to train at various other locations in the town during the winter months.' Once a lease agreement is reached, the council will issue tenders for the construction of the two pitches, which will be located on the site of the club's five a side pitch, that has floodlighting already in place. A decision on how the facility will be managed will be made once construction work has begun, with Eugene Cummins hopeful that the progress made so far can be continued to ensure the pitches are open to the public by the end of the year. 'The priority remains agreeing a lease which we're confident of doing now that a decision has been made regarding the successful applicant and once that is tied down we will issue tenders for the construction of the pitches,' he said. 'The issue of maintenance and management is an entirely separate issue and will involve negotiations with interested parties at a later date.' Disappointment Steve Lane added there was a lot of disappointment that one of the factors that had gone against the school's application was planning for a section of the town's inner relief road, which he claimed would never be built. 'There is a 25m exclusion zone on either side of our school gym, to accommodate a proposed section of the town's inner relief road, that had a negative effect on our application,' he said. 'The fact there isn't room for a road without carving up a school from its gym means it will never be built yet it detracted from our application to bring these facilities to the greater school community.' Bart Gormley said the club had been helped by several people in their efforts to secure the funding and paid tribute to Cllr Sean Canney and Cllr Shaun Cunniffe for the work they had done in supporting the club's application. Cllr Cunniffe said the decision to grant the funding to Tuam Celtic would benefit the entire town. 'All the members of Tuam Celtic's committee should be commended on the excellent proposal they placed in front of Galway County Council and I am sure it was a very hard decision for the council in light of the very strong bid from the school's consortium that also had huge merits and benefits for the town,' he said. 'Tuam Celtic is a progressive club with a tremendous community focus that benefits the town hugely.  I know they are very happy to make theses new facilities available to all groups in the town so the benefit will be felt right across the town.' [/private]